


The Horrible Machinations of Fate

by PhantomKeith



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: AU - Zombie Apocalypse, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Character Death, Characters of age, Eventual relationship, M/M, Named Characters, Not Beta Read, Ouma not Oma, Our Boy Shu going through a rough time, Rating will change to E, more characters will be added as the story progresses, original child character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2019-10-26 11:21:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17744987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomKeith/pseuds/PhantomKeith
Summary: Everything is going perfectly. Although some problems do come around here and there everything is going okay.Nothing can ruin how things are going, nothing at all.That was his belief, although somethings went wrong nothing could ruin how he felt. He truly believed in that, he truly did.Now ... He is stuck in a nightmare, replaying his worst moments over and over again until he finds it possible to wake up to reality.But will reality welcome him back kindly?? Or will he be thrown into a real living nightmare?





	1. Echoes of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... I would like to apologize for me vanishing for quite a while.  
> I had been meaning to update my stories but ... 2019 didn't really start well for me.  
> I've been feeling rather depressed lately, I've lost all of what I had worked on for "A Loving Dragon Heart" and I've been having some people in my life ... putting it nicely, being physically and verbally rude towards me.  
> I wasn't really planning on posting this fic ... or this soon, but today has been a rather amazing day and I've been feeling back to my usual self, therefore I will attempt to get back on the updates.  
> Once again I am really sorry for disapearing without a trace.

Mistake.

Mistake after mistake after mistake. That was what his dreams had been doomed to replay.

No matter how much or how hard he would attempt for a change of scenery, his brain - always so stubborn – kept the dreams that he so wished to stop, playing over and over again.

Awaken. His one desire to escape this awful reality. Sadly, a desire too hard to be granted easily.

His dreams started over again, each time making his mistakes more and more clear, a torture he couldn’t escape from.

 

* * *

 

 

“Shuichi” the strong, calm voice of his uncle brought him out of his thoughts

“Yes uncle?”

The taller male presented to him a few papers. Not any papers, but police documents of the arrests that had been made that month.

Shuichi looked at his uncle, confused as to what he was doing. The other male, keeping his smile and maintaining his calm stand “Shuichi, the documents you’ve been filling are … incorrect” a fear began to surface within him upon hearing that “It is only but normal, it’s but your first time filling them and I should have explained to you how to properly file them but who would know that the criminal activity would get so intense that we would be called to help the police force chasing them down”

Shuichi nodded in agreement to his uncle for all statements, just last week he had to fire a gun … that had been when the fear had settled in. He knew his uncle wasn’t mad or disappointed, but Shuichi was, he couldn’t do these mistakes … no, it was a beginners mistake, he should not be feeling like this.

“I do worry about what will happen, I hope things will get settled soon”

“You’re worrying because you’re almost going to Hopes Peak” silently he nodded “Well don’t be, I always worked solo before, I can do so again, so don’t worry about me Shuichi, have fun at Hopes Peak” the argument had been enough to convince Shuichi and get him to agree.

 

* * *

 

 

How pitiful. A so stupid mistake on your end. You wanted things to go your way so much that even he noticed and out on a brave façade so that you could attend Hopes Peak without worry.

 

…

 

Funny how the world works. You got to prepare to go Hopes Peak but your worry spiked when it happened.

 

* * *

 

 

“Uncle!” Shuichi barged in the room his uncle had been hospitalized in.

It didn’t take long for him to feel terrible for leaving his uncle all alone. There in the bed he saw his uncle and a lot of bandages on his chest. His heartbeat began to grow with the sight in front of his eyes, he couldn’t lose his uncle - no, his father, his uncle had been more of a father than his actual father.

“Ah Shuichi …” even now he smiled at Shuichi. His sad expression failing to compliment the smile he was sending towards his nephew “I’m sorry” he mumbled.

“Uncle no, don’t be sorry, it’s my fault for leaving you when you needed, I … I can skip Hopes Peak an-“

“Absolutely not!” Ken cut him off before he could even finish that train of thought “I will not have you put your dreams aside just because I messed up Shuichi” Shuichi tensed up at the harsh tone on his uncle’s voice, a rare occasion seeing that his uncle wasn’t the kind of person to express his anger.

“B-But u-unc-“

“Shuichi, this was my fault …” again his expression softened, calming Shuichi a bit “I’ll be out of here in no time and back on the job, so if you trust me leave this to me and enjoy your school year”

That was what Shuichi wanted, to be around people of his age, to frequent classes at the prestige school that was Hopes Peak. He had grown so sad when the place had to close down a few years ago due to mass renovations, and now that it was finally back on its tracks he wanted to go there to harness his own Ultimate Talent and become someone dependent, someone worthy of being called the Ultimate Detective.

This wish was purely selfless, he didn’t do it for him but for his uncle and aunt, the real family he has ever had on his life.

“Shuichi …” he was pulled into a hug by his uncle who remained on a sitting position while in bed … it must’ve been rather uncomfortable hugging someone while having a gunshot wound. It was treated but still it was a fresh wound.

“Hey champ, don’t cry” he said patting him on the back. Shuichi had not even realized himself that he was crying until his uncle pointed it out “I will be fine, now promise me that no matter what happens you will chase after your dream”

Even though his uncle was on a difficult situation where the extra pair of hands with expertise was so necessary, he was putting Shuichi’s wishes above all of that … his uncle truly was someone far too good.

Feeling now that it would be rather rude to deny or even leave him on wait for an answer, Shuichi nodded in agreement.

“That’s my boy, now go knock em dead Shuichi … not literally” even though he was a great person, his humor was … rather lacking, but even though that was the case Shuichi laughed at the joking tone on the older one’s voice as if that had been the best joke he had heard in a decade.

 

* * *

 

 

… Those were such fun and great times … truth be told a bit sad … what’s the word I’m looking for.

Hmmm … Ah yes …

Those were such bittersweet moments, yet, once again, your own greed was bigger and you ended up accepting.

It is understandable that that would happen, you’re only human therefore it was preordained that you would end up falling victim to one of the seven mortal sins … who would have guessed that you who did everything so selflessly for your family would end up being so greedy just to go to Hopes Peak … truth be told it was for a fair cause, a selfless cause, yet with greedy desire.

In other words, another mistake to be added to the great pile of mistakes you’ve committed so far … mhm … must be some kind of record, but don’t be deceived that we’re done …

Oh?

You can’t take it anymore … oh dear … suck it up … it is _your_ life after all.

Let’s see what was your last and final mistakes before you fell victim to the ruin that follows each mortal.

 

* * *

 

 

“Shuichi!” a cheery voice called to him from the end of the street. It was Kaede Akamatsu, his best friend since they had been friends.

“Yo dude” next to her was a tall male with green hair waving to him, Rantaro Amami, Kaede’s boyfriend and also a great friend to Shuichi, the guy was such a nice company and so fun to be around, adding his looks Shuichi had to admit that Rantaro was quite the catch.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late”

“It’s okay Shuichi, we weren’t waiting for long, but now that you’re here we can make our way to the café, I can’t wait to meet the others!” Kaede had created an online chat group for the class that they were into and had already managed to get everyone’s contact info. Shuichi was amazed with her determination, Hopes Peak was still closed and was only opening in a month.

“Let’s go guys, if we make the others wait things will probably go downhill” Shuichi knew that Rantaro personally knew some of them, he himself had told Shuichi. It had been sometime after Kaede and Rantaro had their son.

To this day he was amazed with them. The child had not been planned for yet they were already acting like mature parents even though they were still twenty four each.

Shuichi also noticed how neither of them had brought their child … they probably left their kid with Kaede’s mom. Shuichi had met her once and he saw from who Kaede had earned her bright smile.

They had quickly arrived to the café and were greeted by those who were there already. A tall guy with amazingly big muscles, yet a childlike kindness for personality. A masked man with long silky hair who was reading a very ancient looking book, even his personality was … uniquely ancient. And then there was an obnoxious busty woman who kept making rather … inappropriate comments and being quite loud.

More and more students ended up arriving, Shuichi ending up recognizing some of his classmates, seeing that they were friends.

More and more people kept arriving. Everyone but one student showed up. The memory of Kaede growing more and more annoyed with someone she was messaging until she sighed and gave up.

The night kept going on and honestly it was being really fun that Shuichi felt himself wishing for it to never end.

Eventually, everyone had started to leave as they had things to do in the next day. Shuichi left alongside Kaede and Rantaro, seeing that they all needed to take a somewhat similar way to reach their respective abodes.

During their way, Shuichi couldn’t help but to feel a small hint of jealousy within him when he saw how happy Kaede and Rantaro were together.

That happiness was something that Shuichi wanted but couldn’t afford to have. His priority was to get his Ultimate Talent to evolve as much as it could so that he could relive his uncle from all the work he had and at the same time offer his uncle and aunt better conditions to live. Even though they kept telling Shuichi not to do so and to chase his own happiness he couldn’t, he loved them too much to do so.

… But … he still had his mind, he could always imagine the perfect scenario where he had found, the one, the person that would hold his heart on his hands and treasure it forever.

The likelihood of that ever happening was rather low, first of, he wasn’t really searching for a partner to enter a relationship with, second of, the fact he was living with his uncle and aunt and basically devoting his time to them could not be well appreciated, and finally, his romantic interest was men. These truths painted a picture were Shuichi saw himself alone.

Shuichi had been so lost on thought that he had failed to hear the loud scream and warnings from his friends.

The next few seconds brought ruin to Shuichi.

 

* * *

 

 

Your last and biggest mistake to date.

You just had to be distracted and let that accident happen.

For a selfless person you really are selfish, wanting everything to go right, wanting everything to go perfect and it’s exactly for that reason that you fail and will fail again.

Ruin fell before you in a way of this profound sleep.

 

. . .

 

How long has it been since the accident?

How long has it been since you felt the touch of someone on your body?

How long has it been since you last heard someone, heck even something?

 

Days?

Weeks?

Do I dare even say months?

 

Were we finally abandoned by everyone who seemed to care … or, are they too “busy” to come see you … weird is it not, it’s always the good guys and girls that suffer.

When was the last time you felt the sun hit your body?

When was the last time you felt yourself being fed?

 

. . .

 

Too long to remember … even a conscience such as myself can’t remember … and even still you remain here … chained in a prison made by your decisions, a prison you can break free of and regain the life you have placed aside, a chance that not many seem to have.

 

. . .

 

And once again the same outcome.

No response … none at all.

You wallow in your own sadness resulting of the choices you’ve taken part of in your life.

This is your desire.

This is your wish.

This is your future.

To die in a nightmare, to die chained, to die mindless in this prison where your conscience is the warden. How despairingly awful.

. . .

Once again, as the million times before, I’ll ask.

_What do you want?_

 

Will you finally answer this question or will you replay all your mistakes again in a futile attempt to delay the obvious? … Pick the first or second choice, either is fine by me, I am you and you are me, we are one, if one perishes the other follows … that is the curse of conscience …

I do admit that opening your eyes and seeing the world would be rather great … but … are you ready to exit the nightmare you’ve grown so accustomed to, the nightmare that is your home now, correct?

“…”

… A reaction?

“I …”

Brain activity … is your awakening or demise soon?

“I ... don’t want this”

The sea of decisions has become a two way river, make your choice …

“I want to live”

Then break free, you are holding those chains, and as a warden I don’t really want you here … all you need is will.

Do you have that … do you have the will to let go of death, who repeatedly wants you to live?

Do you have the willpower to finally put an end to the nightmare and open your eyes to reality?

 

. . .

 

Or … do you lack enough will to live?

“I want to live … I want to wake up!”

Is that the truth?

“I want to wake up!”

Do you really?

“Let me wake up!”

I can’t.

I’m not the one keeping you here. The responsible for that is simply you … but if you really want to wake up I believe I can give you a push.

…

…

…

…

"H-Huh ... a bell ... where is that sound comi-"

 

Wake up

 

* * *

 

 

Shuichi’s eyes shot open to a room he was unfamiliar with. Cold sweats ran down his face after that awful nightmare he had.

A voice always present but always so far away kept reminding him of each mistake he did, his voice.

His breathing uneven and vision foggy, all that remained with him were but his memories.

Quickly he recalled the last thing that happened to him, the truck that hit him and made him enter that infernal nightmare.

It hit him, he had been hit by a truck so this place he was at was most likely an hospital room. It made sense and it was the only possible explanation … but … something was wrong, very wrong.

The first thing that Shuichi noticed once his vision cleared was how dark, and dirty the room actually was, it mostly had dust covering the walls and ceiling. What kind of hospital would have that kind of unsanitary conditions?

The second thing he noticed was how he had nothing connected to him. He wasn’t an expert on medicine but he knew he was supposed to have at least a remotely filled IV bag … and for what reason was the heart monitor turned off??

Shuichi felt heavy and dirty, he felt the need for a bath but his body seemed pained, he couldn’t lift himself with ease and ended up stopping until he was on a sitting position allowing him a better view of the room he was on.

A vase with dry withered roses was on the bed stand. Another odd thing to be seen on a hospital.

His hand went for the tv remote on the bed stand to check what had or was happening while he had been sleeping.

That reminded him to press the button near the bed to call the nurses so that they could check his condition and contact his guardians.

After fiddling with the remote for a while Shuichi finally placed the remote back. The tv still silent and dark as it had been when he woke up.

The remote was most likely dead.

He waited and waited and waited … but nobody came.

He pressed the “Call Nurse” button again, maybe they had failed to notice the first one.

When nobody came he pressed again, and then once again.

Yet the result seemed to be the same.

Now determined to get up from the bed he noticed two more things. On a chair near the bed were his clothes … the other thing he noticed was the smell.

Why was there such an awful rotting smell on the hospital?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Shuichi's journey begins ...
> 
> If anyone noticed this is tagged as AU but I did not specify what kind of AU ... I wonder if anyone can guess it on the comments seeing that on Chapter 2 it will be rather obvious what kind of AU this is.  
> I'll also try to update "A Loving Dragon Heart" soon, I'm trying to rewritting the lost chapters with my notes and from what I remembered.


	2. Unholy Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With his eyes open and fully conscious, Shuichi decides to leave the hospital room just to realize ... he was going to live a nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, good news, I've fairly constant time and I plan to use this time to update my stories. Truth be told, updates might be kinda slow since I'm still feeling a bit on the dumps.

Finally tired of that god forsaken smell and the fact that there was not one nurse willing to check up on him, Shuichi gathered the resolve to remove his body from bed despite the aching pain.

As he expected standing was being difficult, even with the support of the bed. Shuichi recalled his uncle instructing him a bit about hospital patients that were in a coma or just unable to be awake and move their bodies. His uncle had instructed him that if the body doesn’t move for a long period of time then when the person would attempt to move they would have trouble such as intense pain from their muscles.

He also recalled his uncle telling him that that was why the nurses would help the patients by exercising them with simple but effective exercises.

Shuichi’s condition was enough for him to know that he had been asleep for quite a bit and that no one had helped him exercise his body. But, he wasn’t going to give up just because of that.

A few minutes later he was able to stand, although with pain, but he no longer needed the bed, he simply needed to be much more careful with how he moved or how much strength he would end up using.

Once again with the aid of the bed he changed from his hospital gown to his casual clothes, he simply saw no purpose on staying there. Nobody came to him when he called the nurses, he didn’t feel anything broken just muscle pain, if anything he felt almost perfect.

He stopped his actions once the gown was removed, taking his time as he watched the bandages that were wrapped around his arms, his legs and also his head, how did he miss that one?

“… It must’ve been bad … really bad” fingers rubbing gently against the bandages. Each touch a reminder to him of the pain he felt right before the world went dark.

His aunt and uncle must have been dead worried for him. And both Kaede and Rantaro had to witness what happened, they really didn’t need to have watched the accident, they already had so much on their hands.

At the very least he could still make it up to them, he was still alive and able to do what he could before.

Concluding his change of clothes he stood up once again and carefully moved to the window and opened the curtains just for his jaw to fall in awe.

The town could be described as a huge crash scene. Some of the taller buildings broken down and burned, the street filled with cars, some broken some turned over, there was absolutely no sign of life.

His weak body gave out and he fell to his knees while his brain attempted to process the scene he had just seen.

“W-What happened … H-How long w-w-was I sleeping” his head turned to the door, the fear and despair that began to settle in were being drowned by the sheer determination of finding his uncle and aunt.

With that new goal and also finding out what happened to the town he lived in, he got back to his feet and went to the door.

Opening the door was another mistake.

The hallways of the hospital were dark, the lights were off, but there was enough light for Shuichi to see horrible scenes. The walls were painted with blood, broken medical supplies lingered on the floor and right next to his door room was the corpse of a young woman.

“K-” his eyes quickly shed tears once he saw the young woman. He had seen sights of dead people before, but … the reason it was affecting him much more was because of the familiar musical note hairpin “Kaede …” he kneeled next to her, taking in that horrible scene.

His best friend, one of the few people in the world that were as bright as the sun … was now dead and decomposing right in front of him.

“Kaede!” he shouted, unable to keep composure.

Kaede was such an important friend to him, a friend he held dear and very close to his heart. Now, said friend was lying on the floor, dead, cold, flesh blue … and a gunshot wound to the head.

Shuichi didn’t want to look anymore, he didn’t want to see anymore, he didn’t want … to be awake anymore … yet his own body was frozen in place, he could only stare at her, his hand clenching hers. Tears and more tears kept falling to the floor, some falling on her.

Kaede had been murdered … Someone had killed his best friend.

The despicable sight in front of him made him feel ready to throw up, but he didn’t threw up, no matter how much that feeling made itself clear it wasn’t like he had had enough food in his stomach to allow him to vomit.

His back pressed to the wall for support, so just that he could find the mental strength to fight these feelings.

He had always been like this, always weak at keeping his feelings totally in check, but he had a way of dealing with them, he usually distracted himself with things around him, but it isn’t really easy when your best friend the one dead next to you.

Suddenly he found himself on the fetal position, his mind not being able to keep up with all that he had just seen. The town in ruins … his best friend dead … the hospital looking like had been devastated by savages.

“U-Uncle … help me … p-please” not once had he ever felt like he truly wanted his uncle’s help, each and every time he received his help were at things Shuichi knew he could solve, just like a hard mathematical problem, all he needed was time … but this time he really wanted his uncle, he wanted him to hug him, to make him feel safe, to tell him that everything was going to be okay.

That was his wish, his selfish wish.

…

But nobody came.

Who would come?

His uncle? He was gone, Shuichi was sure he had been sleeping for more than a week, Kaede’s dead body was proof enough that she had been dead well over a week, therefore he was sure that his uncle wasn’t in town anymore … why would he be in town for a mistake like him.

Yes, Shuichi knew, he had always known that he was a mistake for his parents, they had never wished for a kid that early on, but the parents of both parties were against an abortion therefore they had him and placed him in the care of the ones who were willing to take care of him.

_Giving up already?_

 

… There it was again, that voice of reason, the cold analytical voice of reason of his conscience …

Shuichi’s tearful eyes fell again on Kaede’s body. She didn’t deserve that death, she should have died of old age not like this … not … murdered.

As time went by he managed to regain control of his emotions.

All he had to do was leave, find someone and get help to take care of what had happened here, he wanted to find someone to help get justice to what happened here, help to take Kaede’s body and give her a proper burial, he wanted to find Rantaro and-

“Oh god … Rantaro …” his hand covered his mouth realizing that he had to tell Rantaro of Kaede’s death … how would he react … what about their child …

Why … Why why why why … why were things turning out so bad.

After wiping his face with his jacket sleeve, Shuichi found the strength to get back to his feet and leave that godforsaken hospital.

“Kaede …” he stopped next to her corpse “I promise I’ll come back” with that promise made Shuichi left her, making his way down the stairs to the entrance.

Each step down the stairs was hell for Shuichi’s leg muscles, but he was determined to make it out of that hospital, the stench of death was too strong there … Kaede … it was too painful to be there knowing that Kaede was there … that she was … just thinking about it was painful.

For some sick and twisted reason a memory came to mind, a memory he loved so much.

 

* * *

 

 

A child walked down the street by himself. The other kids moved away from him, not willing to talk to him.

That was fine, he wasn’t being hurt … he wasn’t … really …

“Hi” a cheery voice came from behind.

Upon looking back he saw a child, maybe around the same age as him? She was a young blond girl and her smile eased his sadness.

“I’m Kaede, Kaede Akamatsu” she introduced herself.

Shuichi knew who she was, she was the new student. Cheery, beautiful Kaede, the young girl who upon arrival quickly was loved by others around her.

He found himself jealous of Kaede, but he meant her no harm, in fact, why was she even talking to him in the first place.

“Uhh … I’m S-Shuichi … S-Saihara Shuichi …” it must have been such an awkward scene … she would probably leave no-

Shuichi found himself having a hand wrapped around his own.

She giggled “It’s nice to meet you Saihara-kun, I wanted to talk to you for a while now but you must have been busy and I didn’t want to be a bother to you during school” a bother … she thought she was going to be a bother.

“N-No … you … you wouldn’t b-bother me …” talking with someone new was always so difficult.

“Oh … Well now I feel a bit stupid” she giggled again “Hey, Saihara-kun, can we be friends?”

“Huh?” the question was so sudden and unexpected, why would she want to be friends with someone like him?

A tall woman approached the two of them “There you are Kaede, oh and I see you’ve made a friend already, and he’s so adorable!” the woman excitedly said.

Shuichi’s cheeks lit up at the compliment.

“Mom, don’t embarrass Saihara-kun! And we’re still not friends … but I want to be” being raised by a detective gave him a few perks, one being of having some clues as to spot a lie. Kaede had been truthful so far and she truly seemed to be a kind person.

It was odd having someone that kind talking to him, but it was welcoming.

“I … I’d love to be friends with you”

“Yay!”

 

* * *

 

 

… Shuichi had reached the lobby.

The place, just like the floor he had come from, was dead and putrid. A lone chair stood out to Shuichi.

Sitting down had never felt so good before, his muscles thanked him for the break.

His mind wandering on the memory that had made its way back to the present, his tears held back.

Though he was sad and fully knowing that the next though sounded rather rude … he was a realist.

There was no point on never ending tears for the past. The past was out of his hands to change, all he could do was his best for a better tomorrow.

A lesson he learned from his uncle. If someone didn’t know him well they would have believed him to be quite the cold person … just as many people believed Shuichi to be. While in reality … well, he didn’t really know his uncle’s reason for that mindset but to him, that mindset was, in a way, protective and helped him be efficient.

After a while Shuichi decided he had had enough rest and decided to get back on track.

Upon leaving the hospital he was sure of one thing, he truly had woken up from a nightmare just to live one.

The damage he had seen from his hospital room’s window was a better sight than this.

From his window he saw mostly broken building, cars turned over and basically hints of the great chaos that had taken place. But from this point of view he could see a lot more.

Going down the street - toward his uncle and aunt’s place - he saw atrocious sights. Some of the vehicles had corpses inside of them and bullet holes in the cars. Dry blood painted the streets and corpses ripped open remained on the street, some even had flesh missing.

Shuichi felt his heart and breathing perk up at the sight. He recognized some of the people.

Some of them where friendly people who greeted him each day, asked him about his day, wished him well, people who truly cared for him. Others looked like his neighbors. He lived on a rather friendly neighborhood but there was one couple who were a bit more on the harsh side.

A flower shop to his right side.

Just looking at it is clear to spot the signs of forced entry. The window stand destroyed, door barely attached, the interior a complete mess. A sad sight to say the least, seeing that this was a place he really loved, it was such a peaceful place.

Shuichi recalled purchasing some Dahlias from this shop. They were the flowers his aunt loved so much, seeing her smile was very important to Shuichi seeing that he loved his aunt and his uncle too. His uncle wasn’t much of a man of flowers but he went along with it knowing how much his wife and nephew liked them.

There had also been a time he had wanted to buy these beautiful violets of a strong shade of purple as a gift for a certain someone that managed to make his heart bloom like a sunflower at the sun, a certain someone that made him forget that the world existed and that it was only them … sadly this someone wasn’t aware of Shuichi as he only looked at them from afar, charmed by their beauty, mind and kind actions done when no one was looking.

Sadly … that is just a dream now, Shuichi didn’t even know their name, he never gather the courage to walk up and ask, if he knew how soon this town would go to shit he would have grown the balls to at the very least talk to this person.

Shaking the thoughts that invaded his head he departed from the flower shop towards his home.

As he made his way he felt necessary to stop ever so often, the world sometimes would spin, his head aching so badly and he felt his head so damn hot, his breathing growing uneven not because of the unspeakable sights but … because of something else, the more he attempted to move the more he felt like he’d pass out.

Yet, he soldier on and made his way to his neighborhood.

Seeing his house had never been such a relieving sight as now.

“Uncle! Aunt!” he shouted as he made his way into the house.

There was no response from the messy and dust filled house. Shuichi’s, already providing him a scenario of what had gone down, but he couldn’t accept it.

“Uncle … Aunt!” he shouted once again … this time more desperate.

Checking room by room and the expected outcome came. Each room was devoid of life … well, it still had some plants that were somehow alive but other than that there were absolutely zero signs of life. Stuff was missing from the house such as, food, family pictures, clothes and most of the sharper knives.

With that evidence there was but one scenario that he could imagine. House empty, pictures and food gone, no sign of either uncle or aunt.

_They abandoned us- … you, abandoned you_

That voice … he hated his own voice so much right now.

“There’s no way … they wouldn’t abandon me, they couldn’t … right?” he asked to himself, fully knowing the logical answer.

The more he thought about it, the clearer the scenario of being abandoned truly was.

Why would they even care for him? His parents didn’t care for him when they handed him - still a baby for crying out loud - to the first ones who accepted to take care of him.

Yet, in the end, it seems like they were just like his mother and father.

His knees gave out as the realization hit him like a brick.

 

Alone.

Abandoned.

Weak.

 

The will he had before, gone, just like a pile of dust in the wind.

With his face once again wet with tears from his eyes, he looked to the door, a noise had caught his attention, it seemed to be like a loud grunt like shout? … Whatever it was it caught Shuichi’s attention.

Struggling to get back on his feet and the world spiraling once again he somehow found himself again standing.

Once leaving his home ... how funny, could he even call that place home after being abandoned for a second time?

His legs hurt, they hurt much more than they did before, yet he kept dragging his body to the source of the sound.

The sound was so close, it seemed to be just around the corner. His vision had started to grow slightly blurry but Shuichi recognized the place he was in, he was close to his school, Saishu … how was it that he got that far without noticing …

Who cares, that’s meaningless, worthless. All that he cared about was that sound, only something or rather someone could make a sound like that, it even seemed like whatever was making the sound was moving … that explains why he heard it near his … his uncle’s house and it was so far away.

Shuichi hurried his pace a bit and manage to take a good look at the source of the sound.

He would never forget the sight in front of him for as long as he lived.

People … he saw a group of about ten tearing open someone’s body and then pulling out the body’s flesh and insides so that they could eat the dead person.

 

“What the fuck …” all courtesy that he had ever had before had been thrown out of the window.

This group, however, seemed to have heard him. Their heads slowly turned towards Shuichi, the sight of them got every hair on his body to stand.

Gray unnatural skin for living people, eyes with no light whatsoever one might call it a void and … and pieces of flesh missing from their bodies.

The creatures moved closer to Shuichi on a slow snail like pace.

The shouted and scream as they walked towards Shuichi.

These things … these monsters … they managed to get Shuichi to tremble in fear and unable to move.

Step by step they inched closer to him, they were almost within arm’s reach, they were going to … to

 

_Run fool!_

His conscience told him and for once he was happy to comply.

He turned around and dashed away from them, all he wanted was to hide, maybe find someone but primarily to hide and never show his face again to the world.

At the end of the street there more of those things, all moving towards him, those things … those … _zombies_ were going to devour him, just like they had done to that corpse.

The world started spinning again, his head hurting more, the pain so unbearable that he tumbled and fell on the floor.

His strength gone, will fading, sight blurring.

So … this is how he goes out … death by zombies.

Shuichi’s eyes began to close on their own, he lacked the will and strength to keep them open.

The last few things he saw were those zombies getting closer and closer to him.

His conscience faded but not before he could hear something very loud, something akin to a gunshot.

“S--h--a … H--g i- t--e- … d--- -ie -n m-!”

His ability to hear faded.

All that remained was the silence and the darkness. Never before had he felt like this … but at least it was painless way to go …

 

* * *

 

 

The pain ... the pain was fading. His aching muscles were relaxing and the pain going away but still there, his aching head starting to feel better and … he felt it cool, as if he had a wet cloth on his forehead … everything was fading away.

Was this how death felt like … weird … he expected the pain to fade away just like his lie, not for it to stay there.

Also why did he felt oddly comfortable?

It felt like he was resting on top of a soft cloud, almost floating even, his body warm, not sickly warm but the kind of warmth of having a nice blanket wrapped around your body and relaxing to the point of falling asleep.

Shuichi could stay like that for ever, in this comfort … but his brain came to the realization that he could still feel, he could still feel his arms and legs and even move them a bit yet there was something restraining his full movement.

Footsteps against a wooden floor made them heard as they moved further and further away until the sound of a door closing reached his ears.

_This … This is not right …_

He told himself fully knowing that something must have happened when he lost conscience and fell to dream world.

His eyes shot open for what must have felt like the second time that day.

Head moving from one side to the other, trying to get a clue of where he was in order to calm down the anxiety that was building up inside of him. As his head moved he felt a cool cloth on his head.

Had someone found him, rescued him even?

Why?

Looking around the room revealed that the place wasn’t bad, it wasn’t extravagant, but a nice kind of plain that felt welcoming.

Moonlight came from the boarded window, revealing that he had slept for a rather long time now.

Moving his head away from the window he noticed that the cozy room looked … oddly familiar, like he had seen it before be it in a dream or reality.

Moving again, this time to get up from bed he realized that his actions were limited seeing that his legs and wrists were tied to the bed. Furthermore the movement he had made caused something - he couldn’t see what this something was from where he was on the bed - to fall to the floor, alerting whoever had saved him that he had woken up.

Shuichi hoped that the sound had gone unnoticed. Although feeling rather welcome to whoever had saved his life from those … he couldn’t believe it yet, even after experiencing it firsthand that there were … z _ombies_ roaming around.

For him this was a very terrible curse, but a tiny teensy part of him was ecstatic for what was happening. Shuichi didn’t like to brag but he was a big fan from the famous zombie series that was going around.

Yes it looked odd for a …  almost detective like himself and type of guy he was to be into this show but he did like it, nevertheless he wouldn’t make it a big fuss to have the chance of living _The Walking Dead_ , yes he loved the show, but he wasn’t an obsessed fan boy to the point of wanting to make the world a zombie haven … truth be told he had written some plots about a zombie story, even included himself and his friends in it and … the fact he was remembering those stories were not helping his case. Not. One. Bit.

His fear spiked when he heard footsteps coming from the only door in the room.

Shuichi was afraid, he knew not who this person was or what this person wanted of him … oh god what if it wasn’t one person or two?

A zombie apocalypse means less people, less food, less everything and … remembering some of the cases Shuichi had worked with the police he noticed that some people would go to incredulous amounts of trouble just to have sex with someone … not consensual.

What if this was one of those occasions. What if he was caught by some person or a group of people that wished to use him, to rape him to fulfill their sexual satisfaction …

Shuichi wanted his first to be consensual with someone he liked, someone who liked him back … he wanted to be the one he wished to buy flowers for but never had the guts to …

The restrains made all effort to break free meaningless, he couldn’t escape. Looking around wasn’t that much of an help either seeing that there was nothing near him to cut the ropes … all he could do was wait for the door to open and face his fate.

The doorknob turned, the door opened slowly … too slow.

Oh god … the person was holding a pistol on their hand as they opened the door.

The door was kicked open and the gun pointed at him.

In this state of fear all he could do was tremble and attempt to form coherent words.

“P-Pl-lease … do-don’t k-k-kill me” he felt so pathetic to the fact that he wasn’t able to even say anything without having trouble.

The person lowered the gun and … _limped_ towards him. Said person was holding with their right hand the left side of their torso.

“Saihara-kun …” the person said.

Shuichi flinched at the voice, male, calm, soothing and familiar.

His eyes opened again and locked to the ones - or so Shuichi believes - of the other male “A…” tears started to well up forcing him to blink them away “Amami-kun?”

The room grew lighter with the moonlight that came through the window. Shuichi was so happy to see a familiar face.

Rantaro sat on a stool placed next to the bed. Shuichi noticed how he grits his teeth and held his left side harder when he walked. The pistol left on the bed stand, the cloth removed from his head replaced by Amami’s hand.

“Thank God, the medicine seems to be working, the fever is lowering” he sighed with relief.

He once again looked at Shuichi and he showed a rare sight, Rantaro Amami was crying “I’m so happy to see you again … I … we all thought you were gone Shuichi” the usage of his first name instead of the last one was weird coming from Rantaro, it just showed how much impact Shuichi showing up truly had.

“Wait … what do you mean by we? And what’s going on, why are we suddenly on a zombie infested word?” Rantaro’s smile started to vanish at that question.

“… not much after you went into a coma the news reports started warning people of an unknown disease. Knowing how the news are we didn’t really gave it much importance but soon the dead started to show up and attacking people left and right”

There was a sound of something falling to the floor outside, managing to get both Shuichi’s and Rantaro’s attention. Knowing the sound it must have been someo- a zombie that bumped into a trashcan.

“When that happened” Amami continued “The army showed up and began killing them and made our town into a safe zone for four years … eventually the zombies broke through and everyone had to leave to a new safe zone up north” Rantaro was now clenching his fists “Me, Kaede, your uncle and your aunt refused … unfortunately, anyone that refused to go with the army was … forcefully brought with them, anyone hospitalized was left to die seeing that they were too much of a hassle … me and Kaede managed to hide from them so we got to stay”

So … that’s what happened, he wasn’t abandoned, they were forced to leave whether they liked it or not …

Shuichi felt so relieved that he almost didn’t notice Rantaro pulling out a knife his pocket.

“It’s been … some years now … the promise of a cure came but the cure itself never came … each day me and Kaede were living here together with our child, surviving the dead … and awaiting for you to wake up, you are our great friend so there is no way we would abandon you no matter what the odds might be”

The mention of Kaede waiting for him hurt … it hurt real badly.

Rantaro’s expression changed, he was now wearing a frown “… Kaede went missing a few months back” Shuichi’s blood grew cold, knowing very well where she was and how she was “I’ve been searching for her but … being a father there is just so much danger I can put myself on …” With knife in hand he cut the ropes restraining Shuichi to the bed.

“I hope that you’re not mad at me for restraining you … I wasn’t sure whether you were going to make it or not so if you didn’t I didn’t want to see my friend lunge at me after being turned into one … one of them …”

After freeing Shuichi he stood up and made his way to the door, his left leg dragging slightly across the floor, worrying Shuichi.

“Ranta-“

“It’s lat-“

The two spoke at the same time.

“Go first” he told Rantaro. Seeing that he was slightly older than Shuichi he showed him some respect.

“… It’s late … and almost morning … I need to ask you something big … something important that only you can do so … meet me when you wake up” Shuichi had not noticed before with how happy he was by seeing Rantaro, but his voice … he sounded so sad, so despairingly awful, so … dead.

“Ran-“

“Please … no … Tomorrow, I’m tired Shuichi …”

With that Rantaro excused himself and closed the door leaving Shuichi alone to his thoughts.

_He looked bad … real bad … did something happen_

 

Something must have happened to make him like that … right?

Rantaro was always the kind of guy that no matter what hit him he would easily overcome it … but now he didn’t hold that bravery to overcome anything that hit him.

Did his child die, did the virus turn him … no it couldn’t be, he said that he was living with Kaede and his child so there’s no way … unless raiders came to the town and killed him leaving Rantaro alone … maybe it had been Rantaro himself that killed his ow-

Wow, his thoughts were getting darker and darker by the second. It wouldn’t do him any good to worry about that now, there was nothing to worry about, Rantaro just seemed tired … he did rescue him from a horde of zombies and then carried his to his house so there was no wonder that Rantaro must’ve been tired, no, exhausted!

Whatever it was troubling him must have been really disturbing, Shuichi was conflicted whether to obey or go after him. His decision, however, had already been picked by him. The sleep came quickly and with how tired and weak he felt there was no fighting how he slowly drifted to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

…

 

Rantaro reached the windows near the entryway, the street clear and devoid of li- … well … devoid of any movement.

He sighed out of relief, short lived relief as pain erupted from his torso’s left side.

 

…

 

“I … I can do t-this … just a little longer …” he said to himself with ragged breathing

He needed to reach his room an-

“GAH!” he fell down when he attempted to walk.

 

…

 

He attempted to get back on his feet but fell again to the floor. The action caused him to start coughing, blood coming out of his mouth until he managed to control himself.

 

…

 

“N-No … I can’t die … not yet … I have to hold on … p-please God … just a little longer …” he brought his hand near his face and saw it to be drenched in red. Exactly where he was applying strength he could see a red puddle of the same liquid.

“I can’t die … not yet … not like this … I still need to … to find you … Kaede …”

Pressing his back to the wall his breathing grew heavier.

“Haha … ahahahah … I’m so stupid for losing distraction like that … I couldn’t find you, I barely managed to save Shuichi and no- … Shuichi …” he looked to the room where Shuichi was and to another room farther away from the one Shuichi’s in.

“… I’m not going out like this … and …”

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

His clean hand reached his pocket and took out a picture of himself, Kaede and their child.

With the tears that ran down his face he knew that the choice that he was about to do was the hardest one in his entire life.

These two choices were both heartbreaking but … the reappearance of Shuichi was, in a way, a blessing in disguise … it would assure that one of the choices was better than the other … but for that … Rantaro had to do something that his best friend, the one he considered a brother, did quite a lot … he needed to lie to one person … a lot in order for this choice to be the best.

Though he wasn’t a fan of lying and especially to this person he knew it would break his heart to do this … it was the only choice.

“I have … to leave … Hayato … in your care … Shuichi”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And things start going downhill for Shuichi ...


	3. Dreadful decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi was never a man of mornings. If anything he hated mornings.
> 
> Little did he know that this morning was going to beat all others on which was the worst.

How rare, he had had a peaceful slumber.

No nightmares.

The voice that haunted him seemed to be gone.

His body was no longer in pain.

In short, he felt relaxed and pretty damn comfortable ... Shuichi liked feeling this way but with the events that had unfolded he was already expecting a catch.

Though the world might’ve ended, this time of small peace was exactly all he needed, just some uninterrupted rest, some time to let his mind wander.

This was pretty uncharacteristic and he knew it, seeing that he would never give himself a break, but now … now the story was different. With everything that was going down he needed a break, and at last he had it.

His so necessary break must’ve feel like how it feels to drink water after three days on a desert without having drinkable water.

Shuichi hated mornings, he hated getting up from bed and face the cold morning … and even worse, he hate always being alone.

There was a spot in the he slept in, a spot big enough to fit someone else … eh … here he was again, being greedy, especially on the apocalypse.

His odds of finding a lover were much closer to zero now than they were before, plus adding his difficulty to be around a person he was into he was sure that his odds must have gone below zero, probably negative ninety percent ...

Eyes slowly opened to face the morning. A bedroom filled with the warm light of the morning sun.

“Ah … when was the last time I felt like this … so … warm inside …” his mind went back to search for the last time he had felt like that.

The irony hit him when he remembered and he could hold back the giggle.

 

* * *

 

 

It was such a cold Monday and he didn’t want to get out of his warm bed. His car wasn’t working therefore he had to run his way to the station, such a sucky Monday.

Then, while he passed near a garden, a route he normally never took to work seeing that the street didn’t pass by here. From inside the garden was someone humming a tune to themselves, a pretty normal action for one to do, yet for some reason Shuichi felt drawn to that person’s voice, like a seaman hearing the enchanting melody of a mermaid.

Peeking through one of the bushes he saw a short man that must’ve been around his age, he was the source of the melody Shuichi was hearing.

Shuichi found himself to be frozen and unable to breathe. He had just seen this person and then his heart had already sped up, his cheeks lighting up and warmth spreading through his chest. His eyes couldn’t move away from that person. That lovely person had not noticed him and was still tending to those beautiful violets, purple as his hair.

Approach him was easy enough, talking to him was a bit more challenging but still possible … but no, Shuichi turned his back and left, he knew he was lying to himself when he repeatedly said that work was going to start soon. He was running away because of the fear of rejection.

After that day Shuichi found himself going to work by foot, just to pass by that garden and see that person, each passing day the crowd would seem to fade away when he gained a glimpse of that short yet adorable person.

He realized that some people might believe him to be a stalker but he wasn’t … they were just coincidences!

Shuichi kept on his path, the only change was passing by the garden and that one change on routine changed everything else. Wherever he went he would see him, he would notice certain actions he did.

Most of the time he’d meet up with these group of people wearing clown masks and wearing the same white outfit that he wore, other times he’d notice how that person pushed others away and finally, he noticed what must have been the most vulnerable that this person was, the most honest and beautiful sight ever.

It had been by accident. The police station had him stay until sunset. On his way back he would pass by the garden as usual and expected it to be empty, but this time it wasn’t, he noticed that person wearing such a pure innocent smile and his lovely laugh as he played around with a kitty and what seemed to be the kitty’s mother.

Such innocence was beautiful, it was sweet and it was such a warm welcome to his gloomy routine.

As he continued on his way back home, he realized how hot his cheeks were and how he must have such a goofy smile on his face.

He realized it right then that he fell for that person very hard.

 

* * *

 

 

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the loud sound of a clock tower bell.

Just who in their right mind would do that, especially with all the zombies roaming the city?

Taking a look out the window he noticed three zombies moving away from Rantaro’s house and heading towards the clock tower. Whoever was doing that had just cleared the streets from all zombies.

In a way that was a relief but that meant that there was someone out there and there was no telling if this person was good, bad, or even neutral towards other people.

… Maybe … he should discuss this with Rantaro.

Yeah, that’s it, discussing the subject with him was the best choice out of all he had to pick. Rantaro was the Ultimate Adventurer after all and he has been living on the apocalypse since day one, therefore, by that logic, he should have a good idea on what to do.

With that in mind he exited the room.

“*gasp*”

“Hm?” he turned his head to the source of the sound and was met with a young kid with light blue hair. The kid dashed inside a room and closed the door to the hallway.

_… was that … Rantaro’s kid?_

He changed so much since the last time Shuichi had seen him. He used to have Rantaro’s green hair but lighter, now his hair was a light blue kind of tone. Seeing how everything was, the possibility of hair dye was out of the question … Rantaro’s father did have blue hair, maybe it was because of that.

Though that was the case, Shuichi could see physical traces of both Kaede and Rantaro on the child. For example, the child, just like Kaede, had an ahoge and the rest of the hair naturally a bit messy, like Rantaro’s. The child’s eyes were of a stronger kind of purple than Kaede’s.

Shuichi couldn’t really guess much more about the child seeing that he had only had a glimpse.

Leaving the child, Shuichi went downstairs finding the back door open and right outside was Rantaro and two open graves.

“Rantaro, what’re you doing?” the way Rantaro was, so quiet and unmoving was concerning.

“Sh … Shuichi …” he sounded tired “… I … you had something to tell me last night … didn’t you”

All words left Shuichi.

“Rantaro … it’s about Kaede”

He flinched and turned around. He looked terrible, he was unbelievably pale.

“Rantaro are you ok-“

“About Kaede!”

There was no going back “… I know you’ve been searching for her … and … I know where she is” the silence was so awful, so despair inducing “Rantaro … she’s … she’s …”

“… How” he asked “… where and how”

“… In the hospital … she was shot on the head …”

Once again silence. Rantaro wasn’t showing any emotion, no anger, no sadness, heck, no madness. Anyone would feel sad, angry or even mad if their loved one was killed so why wasn’t he showing any emotions.

“… Shuichi … she was killed by an awful person”

“H-Huh?”

“One day, a raider came to town and began hunting people to get their things … I was wounded back then and Kaede led that person far away from the house … she never showed up after that”

Rantaro faced the graves again. Shuichi on the other hand couldn’t believe how people have become.

“… Shuichi I’ve got a few favors to ask of you” what a weird request, Rantaro wasn’t a person to ask others for things, let alone requests.

“Anything, you’re my friend and you’ve been really kind to me in these awful times”

Once again he took some time to respond, Shuichi could hear him heavily breathing … was he really okay?

“Please … bring Kaede’s corpse here … she deserves to be buried” Shuichi nodded.

Rantaro couldn’t see him nodding but he knew he was.

“A friend of a great friend of mine was here yesterday … he went to the police station and hasn’t come back … please find him if you can”

“O-Of course”

For some reason Shuichi could feel that something was very wrong.

“Lastly” he swallowed a lump forming on his throat “I want you to take Hayato, mine and Kaede’s son … with you”

“Wait what, I can’t do th-“

“I wasn’t finished” he interrupted, Shuichi grew quiet.

“… I’ve told Hayato that Kaede and I weren’t his real parents, we were just taking care of him until his father, Shuichi Saihara, would recover from the hospital, he fully believes you to be his father and … he is grateful to me and … a bit shy of meeting you” he stopped, regaining his breath.

“Rantaro, why, why would you give your son to me like this? It’s not that I don’t want a family … but why?”

He turned around. Rantaro was crying.

He released his left side, grabbed his shirt and pulled it up.

Shuichi didn’t want to believe his eyes.

“I’m bit Shuichi … I need to save Hayato … this is the only way for him to stay alive and be happy …”

The flesh on his torso wasn’t pale like his arms or face, it looked dead, almost rotting.

“How did this happen?”

“… It was yesterday … no, it wasn’t because of you Shuichi … I was out that day, trying to find Kaede and I grew careless, I thought a corpse was dead for real … Boy was I wrong *cough*” blood came out of his mouth.

“That leads me to my final request …” he pulled out a pistol, Shuichi was familiar with the model, it was a Glock 19 “I want you to kill me Shuichi”

“WHAT!”

“WHAT!” a new voice came from the door.

The voice shocked Rantaro “H-Hayato …”

“Mister Amami, please … no, I don’t want you to die” he turned to Shuichi “D-Dad … please … don’t kill mister Amami” being called dad was odd taking the fact he didn’t really have kids but the pleading look on Rantaro’s face made it impossible for him to back away from this lie.

“Ha-Hayato … son … please understand … Amami-kun was bit … that means he’s going to turn into a zombie” he tried to reason with the young kid.

Hayato turned around looking at Rantaro, tears on his eyes as he looked towards the man that had raised him so far “Hayato … I know you see me as someone important to you … but if you ever cared for me … let me die, don’t let me transform into a monster”

The child began crying. He ran to Shuichi and hugged him as he continued to cry.

“Shuichi … here …” the gun …

Shuichi took it, he had forgotten how it felt to hold one.

“Point it at my head … and shoot me … please … don’t let … let me die a human … not a monster …”

Shuichi had shot people before, he had even killed a person before to save a cop … this time … the situation wasn’t that beneficial to him.

The gun was locked and loaded, pointed at Rantaro’s forehead “I know … it’s hard Shuichi … but remember this … there are awful people in the world … and you have your … _son_ to protect … you might meet people who’ll befriend you … you’ll have to do your best for them … so please … grant me … you friend … this wish …”

The hot tears ran down Shuichi’s face. He nodded and placed the gun’s barrel to the other’s forehead.

“G-G-Good-bye … Rantaro …”

“M-Mister Amami … I’m sorry … I’m so sorry for making you search for Miss Akamatsu”

“Don’t cry little one … I also wanted to find her …”

“M-M-Mister Amami … g- … goodbye!”

“Good-bye Hayato Saihara …” he closed his eyes and exhaled.

“Shuichi … tell him … lies have been told but … now it’s time to rejoin …” these words held some significance. Significance that Shuichi had yet to figure out.

“… I’m ready Shuichi”

He used both hands to hold the gun, his shaking didn’t seem to stop, but … he had to do this … after what he heard he had to. His eyes closed and he pressed the trigger.

The gun released one single lonely bullet and it hit Rantaro right on the head. The body fell to the floor with a loud thud. Rantaro died smiling and without making a sound, a peaceful death.

Hayato hugged Shuichi’s waist harder, not willing to see the dead body.

 

* * *

 

 

Shuichi was sitting at the dinner room’s table, the room orange from the light of the sunset. Hayato had been quietly packing all of the useful supplies, he no longer cried which in a way was good but in a way bad seeing that he wasn’t really showing much emotion. Whenever he noticed that Shuichi, his father looked worried, he would force a smile and say “I’m okay dad” and then continue to pack more supplies.

Hayato had also told him quite a lot about what had happened, about the zombies, about the raids and most important about his life living with Rantaro.

Shuichi looked through the window to the backyard were was one grave open, the other held Rantaro’s body, a wooden cross above the grave.

The young detective had in front of him a combat knife that Rantaro had scavenged, the glock 19, and four magazines for the gun.

The promise made to Rantaro echoing on his head.

_“Please … bring Kaede’s corpse here … she deserves to be buried”_

_. . ._

_“A friend of a great friend of mine was here yesterday … he went to the police station and hasn’t come back … please find him if you can”_

Those promises didn’t let him think about anything else. He really wanted to bring Kaede’s body here and bury her next to Rantaro, the one she loved most but he knew that on his condition he couldn’t bring her all the way to the house and bury her without the possibility of being attacked by zombies, even if Hayato came - which he absolutely didn’t want - would not be enough seeing that he was a five year old.

Shuichi had come to learn that Hayato, despite his age, talked and acted more maturely than he should. Hayato was a child with a gift, he was incredibly smart for his age, in other words a child prodigy. He also mentioned he couldn’t remember most of his first four years alive because of a medical condition, but he was okay now.

Anyways, returning to the options at hand. The second option was also as dangerous but Rantaro did say he was a friend, therefore that person was a good person and safe to be around. If Shuichi brought that person to the house he could help bring Kaede back and then … well his promises would be fulfilled but then what?

…

Maybe … he should try to find his own family, Rantaro did mention that the army was making a save zone, and also that his uncle and aunt were forced to go, just like many others.

Yeah that was it, that’s the plan!

Find this guy.

Befriend him.

Bring Kaede’s body.

And then finally head to the safe zone with Hayato and this guy … if he wanted to go that is.

“Hayato-kun … dad is heading out for a bit” the child ran down the stairs with some cans of food on his hands.

“What! Dad what’re you talking about! There are zombies out there and … you’re still recovering”

“I’m feeling much better after eating, besides I have a gun and knife … I have to find Amami-kun’s friend, he might be in trouble”

The child placed the cans on a nearby table and looked at Shuichi, he looked sad “… Can I come with you Dad?”

“No, you may not, stay here and protect the house, I’ll be safe and I’ll be back soon” that didn’t seem to please Hayato

“If we go together we’e got slightly better odds of survival and success!” Shuichi was familiar to what Hayato was feeling, he was panicking “Going alone is not smart! We should stay together, Yeah!” Shuichi denied him once again. Hayato ran back up the stairs and shut the door a bit too hard.

Shuichi sighed, being like this to children was what he hated most. He absolutely hated frustrating kids this young … especially now that he was a … father … damn it still felt odd to think like that.

Shuichi wore the gun holder by his waist. Rantaro really had scavenged a number of things and they were already proving useful for the tasks at hand.

 

* * *

 

 

The outside was rather … scary to be honest, nothing like the safety from Rantaro’s house, but he made his way through the zombie infested town. He had waited for the clock tower to play again, Hayato had explained to him that the tower had been fixed and had an automatic system and generator so that it could operate on its own.

The number of zombies on the street was basically inexistent meaning a safe and easy travel, but he had to keep his guard up, he could feel the gaze of something on him but no matter where he looked he couldn’t see a zombie.

Eventually he made his way to the police station, where this guy that Rantaro knew was at. Sadly for Shuichi, right in front of the police building was a zombie hitting the door … that’s … a good sign right?

If the zombie is showing signs that there must be something worth its attention then it was more than likely that inside there was someone living.

With knife in hand he approached the zombie silently until he was within arm’s reach and … he froze … he couldn’t do it … he couldn’t kill it. He was only able to kill Rantaro because he asked for it and it was inhumane to let him turn into a monster.

A monster … that was what was standing in front of Shuichi. His arm began to shake with fear as the creature in front of him kept its actions on the door.

There had to be another way to get this done.

Shuichi remembered that Hayato had explained that zombies don’t have the best eyesight therefore focusing on their smelling and hearing skills.

With that in mind he retreated and hid behind a nearby car, grabbed a bottle that rested on the floor and threw it far away into a close by electronics shop.

As expected, the glass bottle breaking got the zombie’s attention. Once the being was into the store, Shuichi headed into the police station to get this task done with and return to the safety of Rantaro’s house.

Hopefully Hayato hasn’t done anything stupid … of course he hasn’t, he is smart, smarter than most kids, and he wouldn’t do anything to endanger himself.

 

* * *

 

 

Upon entering the police station Shuichi felt like he was seeing a house renovation commercial with an after and before picture, however the end result was terrible in this case. Shuichi remembered this place, it was always so busy yet so amazingly tidy. The chief would sometimes shout orders when things would get messy but he was very fond of Shuichi.

Everyone was so friendly and gave their best on the line of duty, each one of them was amazing … now this place - just like the city - was devastated and without any traces of life.

With the shutters closed the place really gave out a creepy ambiance. Like a murderer from a horror Halloween movie could jump out at any moment and kill the main character in a snap.

Though the fear was there he soldier on and moved on further.

Being a detective really had its perks during an apocalypse such as this one. The closed doors that Shuichi was seeing held a considerable amount of dust and zero prints of being used any time near the present. The same could be said of open doors, the floor was dusty enough to leave a print when walking by. Footprints were evidently there yet they also had a concerning amount of dust on top of them, meaning that they weren’t recent so … he could exclude them for now.

There was however one path that seemed to have been used not too long ago to the second floor.

That path was the one he decided to follow.

Going down said path revealed dry blood and more hints of someone’s presence, the hints he found based on the dust prints showed that there was someone looking for something, a zombie wouldn’t do that …

“Holy Mary Mother of God …” his hand went to cover his mouth and attempt to lower the sound of his breathing. He had not even considered the possibility of zombies inside the station, he should’ve but the fact that he was so focused on the past and hints of human activity distracted him.

At the end of the corridor was the chief’s room. The door remained closed but from the outside he could hear the grunts of the dead from within.

Shuichi didn’t need to be told twice to get away from that room.

The clues seemed to point to another corridor, the way the dust hints were showed … distress?? There weren’t footprints but full on marks … either something was dragged or there was a big amount of zombies going that way … logically thinking the only possibility was that they were chasing something … or someone.

Reaching a big office showed three zombies roaming around. They could see but not too well … Shuichi wasn’t going to risk it and crouched.

… Things were going well, well there were zombies in the station but Shuichi hasn’t been found yet. Seems like all the stealthy games he used to play were finally paying off, he just needed to keep up the pace an-

“Hyaaaaa!!” a scream from the entryway alerted Shuichi and the nearby zombies that there was someone alive and in an easy to reach place.

That was problematic. Shuichi couldn’t leave a person out there to die … especially since the voice of that person belonged to Hayato.

Getting out from hiding and receiving a shout from the nearby zombies, Shuichi ran back the way he had come from.

_Why is he here, especially when I told him NOT TO COME!_

 

His worry was growing by the second, knowing very well that Hayato wouldn’t scream for any simple reason …

Shuichi continued running and running until he reached the entryway, once he got there he froze.

Hayato was wearing a terrified expression and was cornered by three zombies, there was also one at the door preventing him to leave.

His eyes fell on Shuichi “D-Daddy! H-Help p-please!” he begged while backing away from the monster approaching him.

Everything was fading for Shuichi, the dear spiking again, Hayato’s frightened face burned into his mind. Hayato was going to die, Hayato was going to be torn apart by zombies.

_You’re going to allow it??_

 

Hayato’s cries grew stronger.

_You’re going to let a child die … coward_

 

The zombies grew closer to him.

 

_This is a cruel world, zombies aren’t people anymore, if you win you live, if you lose you die … save your … son._

 

A shock ran through Shuichi’s body. Never before had he felt this … relaxed and so on control over his own body.

With no hesitation whatsoever he pulled out his Glock 19 and with it he showed the skills he still had with him from his time working with the force. Four precise shots were all it took to kill each zombie with a precise shot to each zombie’s heads.

“Hayato!” he ran towards him, still feeling the rush of adrenaline that was going through his body.

The child barely had any time to react. Shuichi grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back.

The gunfire alerted more nearby zombies and they began to infest the room. With the entryway blocked by a rather large dead fellow, Shuichi had but one choice, to run further into the police station.

_This is bad … this is very bad, our exit is blocked_

Down the hallway more and more zombies came out from each room, their hands shot forward to grab on to Shuichi but he ran past all of them, his grip still firm and strong on the child’s wrist.

“D-Dad s-s-slow down, I’m g-gonn-Ah!” he tripped down, not accustomed to the speed that Shuichi was going at.

Noticing the zombies approaching his son he placed one hand under his legs and the other behind his back, brought him to his chest - almost like picking up someone bridal style - and continued to run past the waves of undead.

There had to be somewhere, any place in this godforsaken station that was clean, a place where he and Hayato could be safe in this police station.

On the first floor his options were limited. He had the operations room, the records room, the supply room, the offices, the interrogation rooms, the bathrooms, but none of those were safe.

Seeing zombies, both former civilians and former officers, blocking his path he had no choice but to turned left. A path mostly clear of zombies, there was just but one still lying on the floor, a great chance for Shuichi as he ran past the monster.

Considering his options he knew that going to the second floor was asking to get killed. The number of zombies there was significant, even when he had yet to be noticed, and the rooms that appeared to be locked had zombies in them. His only choice was somewhere in the first floor, but whe-

In the end of the hallway was a steel door with a thick window on it. The Safety Deposit room, the one place that must have weapons, be clear of zombies and the best part of it is that he still held the keys to the police station, he could lock the door from the inside.

Thankfully for him the hallway where the room was located at had yet to be infested by the wave of zombies following him and Hayato.

With no hesitation he opened up the heavy door, closed it behind him and locked it.

In a matter of seconds the zombies had piled up against the door and were banging on it, trying to break in. The room however had been designed to have maximum security, they wouldn’t be able to break down the door.

As he calmed down he realized how hard Hayato was holding him and how much the child was trembling.

The experience must have been hard for him. If it had been terrifying for Shuichi he couldn’t imagine how horrible it was for Hayato.

“Hey Hayato” Shuichi called out to him, voice calm and soothing “It’s okay now, we’re safe” he sat down on the floor and let Hayato settle down however he wanted.

“I-I’m s-sorry” he apologized in between tears.

Shuichi had almost forgotten that Hayato wasn’t like most children. He had an incredible brain capacity but at the same time he was in touch with his feelings.

While he was in school his psychology professor had informed the class that no matter how smart a person was, feelings had a great chance to cloud the judgment and therefore, cause what can be called, stupid actions.

“I’m so s-sorry!”

“Shhhh, it’s okay now, it’s okay, you don’t have to cry!” the Shuichi hugged him, attempting his best to calm down the nervous wreck that was the child.

Memories of when he would get scared when he was young came to mind, his aunt would hug him, and assure to him everything was okay. She would hum a bedtime song that he loved while rubbing circles on his back.

Shuichi did the same thing his aunt did to him. He had his arms wrapped around the child protectively and kept making sure he wasn’t to blame.

“We’re okay Hayato, this is not your fault” he repeated as he kept the soothing action for the child.

After a bit he started to calm down, the crying and sobbing had stopped yet he kept his position and tightened his grip on Shuichi.

It finally dawned on Shuichi that the reason that Hayato did such a mistake as to follow him and even remain like that was maybe because … he felt lonely and wanted Shuichi’s attention.

Shuichi had failed giving him attention, he could admit that. The moment Hayato lost Rantaro he hadn’t received much attention from Shuichi, he had been more worried about his promise than Haya- … his son.

It still felt so weird to think of the child like that but it was better for Shuichi to get accustomed to that.

… That didn’t matter now. All that mattered was the fact that the two of them were safe and that the zombies couldn’t get inside he roo-

From the corner of his eye he saw something dash at them.

The barrel of a shotgun was tightly pressed against his skin.

“Drop the weapons and start talking” the person warned.


	4. To submit or to fight back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stranger is met and more danger closes in.

It’s funny how just one event, even if small, could change the atmosphere of safety into a very tense one.

In one moment Shuichi and Hayato had burst into the room, without even checking it first due to the fact of them being so glad of having found a place safe. It was a place where they could drop their guard and relax thanks to that safety.

In the other, all safety that they had felt came crumbling down and they were thrown in the face of danger once again. This time, however, by the hands of someone like them, someone who was still alive.

This had to be one if not the worst time in his life.

The tall light brown haired man pointed the shotgun closer to Shuichi’s head, warning that he wasn’t playing around.

There was a part of Shuichi’s brain that thought that maybe he could change things out by grabing the shotgun and throw it away, the guy’s haircut did cover most of the left side of his face. Yet, the fear of making another mistake and getting killed or worse, getting Hayato killed told him to think otherwise.

“Weapons to the floor and kick em to me, now!” the man warned once again, this time his voice a little bit fiercer.

“P-Please let’s calm down” he attempted to diffuse the situation “There’s a child present, we can solve this with words, there’s no need to hurt anyone” Shuichi moved so that Hayato was mostly hidden by his body.

“Agreed … therefore, your weapons please” he was really adamant on getting Shuichi to let go of his weapons.

Shuichi could feel the fear emanating from Hayato. The poor kid couldn’t catch a break.

With a sigh of defeat, Shuichi moved his hands slowly and pulled out both his gun and knife placing them on the floor and kicking them towards the guy.

The other didn’t waste a moment to drop the shotgun and grab Shuichi’s weapons, one on each hand.

The way that the shotgun had been so easily discarded only showed that the threats had been empty, he’d been bluffing when pointing the weapon at Shuichi.

“We’re cooperating, so please, step back a bit, you’re scaring him” the man took a quick look at Hayato. His uneven breathing, pale face and the way he couldn’t control his body simply showed the fear that had made its home on the child.

With a sigh the man backed away a significant distance, just enough for Hayato to calm down a bit and for Shuichi to start calming down.

“So …” the stranger began “Who the hell are you two?” there was no gun on knife pointed their way, the man had sat down and was on a relaxed yet at the same time composed position showing that he was an easy person to be around yet he had capability of doing decisions.

Just as expected Hayato kept his mouth shut and hid more behind Shuichi. “My name’s Shuichi Saihara and he’s … Hayato Saihara”

“Saihara?!” he gasped slightly.

“You … know of us? Or even me?”

Eye contact broke “No, just a familiar name I’ve heard before … can’t remember where …” the detective in him easily told him that this was a lie, but in this situation Shuichi couldn’t really point the finger at him and anger him in any way. This man held the power, this man could kill them if he so wished for.

“I see” Shuichi responded, eye contact forming once again “… Well, I have told you my name and Hayato’s, it is only polite for you to tell us your name since calling you stranger is rather rude”

For a moment there was this awkward silence in the room making Shuichi wonder if he had screwed up or not “Ren”

“Ren …?”

“Just Ren, I don’t have a family name because I was born without a family”

That was quite the unexpected answer for Shuichi, he even felt the boy hiding behind him tense up at the stranger’s … at Ren’s answer.

“Now that the formalities are out of the way” the gun was raised again “What’re you guys doing here”

This person was going straight to the point, he didn’t seem like someone to joke around with.

“W-We’re i-in search of a-a-a f-friend” Hayato said from behind of Shuichi. His momentarily rush of courage fading as he tensed up again.

“A friend?”

That’s right … Shuichi was looking for a person, Rantaro’s friend of a friend? It was easier to just say Rantaro’s friend.

“Yes, we are searching for a friend of Rantaro Amami, would you hap-“ Ren pointed the gun to the wall and shot a warning shot, successfully quieting Shuichi and getting Hayato to shriek in fear.

“Who the hell are you to know him … no, that’s a lie, you’re trying to bait me into a trap” once again the gun was pointed to Shuichi, this time however, the detective was almost sure the other would fire at him.

“I’m not taking risks … any last words …”

His brain was searching for a favorable answer, he needed to remain alive but there were limitations to what he could do. The person … Ren, seemed skilled on using a gun and he looked like he possessed good reflexes, therefore advancing towards him was guaranteed to get him killed. He could back away but to where, the room was limited to two doors and plenty of lockers, one door was the exit, the other the weapon storage, and Shuichi couldn’t really leave to the zombie infested hallway being completely weaponless.

Right there and then he recalled some words Rantaro shared with him before his death.

_“Shuichi … tell him … lies have been told but … now it’s time to rejoin”_

 

“Wait please Ran-“

“Three” he began counting down.

“I beg of you just lis-“

“Two” he wasn’t giving him anymore time.

“Rantaro told m-“

“One”

“Lies have been told!” he froze, finger almost pressing the trigger “But now it’s time to rejoin … Rantaro told me to say this to you”

The weapon was lowered and there was a collective sigh in the room “Man, I almost blasted your head to bits, you should’ve led with that” his fierce expression and voice, gone. Looking at him like this would give a totally different idea from a few seconds ago.

Ren sighed and sat on the floor “You two can relax, if Rantaro trusted you enough to tell that then I can trust you two”

Shuichi released breath that he didn’t know he was holding.

Both Shuichi and Hayato sat down, but not close to Ren.

“So … what are you two doing here?”

“Looking for you on Rantaro’s request”

“Ah” Shuichi noticed Ren removing the magazine of the gun and checking the bullets in it “So … did you notice the kid is tired?” Ren attempted to start a conversation.

Shuichi looked to Hayato and noticed right there and then that he had incredibly dark eyebags and his breathing was a bit ragged … he needed to pay more attention to him, Shuichi was his father now … maybe … he could also be a little nicer towards him “Hayato-chan, are you okay?”

The child’s cheeks turned a bit pink, maybe because of the chan “I’m … okay dad … can I … ask you something?” Shuichi nodded “Can I … rest my head … on your lap?”

Shuichi smiled back “Of course you can”

After placing himself comfortable, both Shuichi and Ren could hear the soft snores from the child. The poor kid must have been up for quite a long time to have eyebags that dark.

Shuichi also noticed the weird look that Ren had on his face, he looked slightly worried “How do you plan to leave this place” he asked Shuichi.

“Um …” the sleuth faced the door and knew that it wasn’t impossible to leave through that one. After a quick look on the room he remembered that that door was the only one in and out “Um … maybe … waiting?”

“I’ve been waiting in here for quite a while seeing I have no weapons but the hallways have always been rather dangerous … tch, I’m starving and in no time you or Hayato will get hungry … death by starvation, that’s not how I wanna go out”

Assessing the situation Shuichi had no other choice but to agree. Shuichi had only brought a gun with 3 magazines and a combat knife, he didn’t bring food seeing that he had the plan of returning home by nightfall.

… No … it won’t do them any good to think like this, he needed to distract Ren from that train of thought.

“So … Ren-kun, what did you do before … um, before the zombies” another attempt at small talk.

Ren tilted his head one way and then sighed, taking the hint to clear the mood a bit “It’s kinda hard to explain … when I was … I don’t know, three or around that, my family abandoned me, I became a street rat, I had no one, no one would help me when I called, no one would give me food, a little bit of money, heck, not even just a few seconds of their days”

Shuichi gulped audibly, he wasn’t expecting that.

“People would even beat me up just for asking for some help … I ended up sitting down on the side of a street and waited for death. Rain, wind, scorching sun … I endured it all while waiting for my death … yet, my body forced me to search for basic things such as leftover food so that I could survive” he wiped his face with his sleeve.

“One day I got beaten up pretty hard … I felt like I was going to die … but that was when he came. He looked at me like I was someone instead of trash, he held out his hand to me and asked me if I wanted to go with him … not having anyone or anywhere to go I went with him” a smile made itself clear on his face.

“When he took me in we didn’t have much, we broke into an empty storage place and then I felt myself feeling … loved but not on the romantic way, he cared for me, gave me food and clothes he made himself … He saved me, and I was and still am eternally grateful to him … I am loyal to him, I owe him my life, that is why I will return … eventually he formed a bigger group, a group I was part of, a group of people like me and him … abandoned by those who were supposed to care for us”

Shuichi couldn’t help but feeling bad for Ren.

“We were happy with him … he even managed to leave us always with just enough food to avoid starvation, we had fun together … and he even accepted development of his talent for us all … I wanted to have gone with him and developed my own but as the  second in charge I had to stay back on the organization … soon after that the dead came to life, and he managed to join with us again … and then a guy that called himself a classmate of his got most of our group to die by the hands of the dead … it’s only me and him now … that’s my story, what’s yours … why are you crying …”

The tears had come out on their own, Shuichi couldn’t keep them back “You’ve suffered so much and when you found happiness on a group that has all suffered so much … now the happiness that you had was stolen … it’s just so sad” Ren nodded his head slightly, he too seemed to be holding back the tears.

“… Do you have a plan to escape this place to meet … this person??” This was the topic Shuichi had not wanted to touch but it slipped out.

“I do now”

“Huh?”

“That kid won’t last long … he has a high fever and if he doesn’t get anything to lower it he will die … better to throw him to the zombies to distract them”

“W-What!” Shuichi’s hand quickly flew to Hayato’s head, it was burning up … could it be … could he have developed a fever from overworking himself and not sleeping … children are much more fragile.

“W-What’re you doing” the sleuth slapped the other’s hand away from Hayato.

“That kid is basically dead, let’s use his body to flee … I don’t like this option but we don’t have any other, if I had weapons I could clear us a path but we don’t have any … that’s why …” he didn’t meet Shuichi’s eyes after that.

Shuichi wasn’t going to let that happen, no matter what happened he would protect Hayat- … it clicked … they needed weapons, the weapon storage was locked, they could reach it … and Shuichi … had exactly what they needed.

“If its weapons you need I can get us in the weapon storage” he pulled out the keys from his pocket “I have the keys for the door”

After gently placing Hayato’s body on the floor he ran to the weapon storage room and unlocked it. It would have been really bad if he had forgotten.

“You …” a hand reached his shoulder and pulled him so that he was face to face with Ren “I fucking love you right now” _… what?_

Ren gave Shuichi what he believed to be his first bear hug, he even thought that Ren was trying to crush him but before the thought could develop he released Shuichi and ran into the weapon storage, grabbing everything and preparing them all in advance.

“You … don’t really mean that … right?”

“Huh? … Oh, right, no I don’t love you romantically, besides he alreeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhh look at the time, I’ve got work to do, why don’t you … huuhh … take care of him” he focused on the weapons to escape the panic.

This individual was really a … unique one.

“You know” Shuichi began while picking up Hayato “We should wait for the clock tower to play again, maybe we’ll get lucky and some zombies will get distracted”

Ren stopped preparing the weapons and stood still for a moment “… Good idea! I was wondering who was playing that bell” he pointed out and went back to preparing the weapons for their grand escape.

 

* * *

 

 

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and hours to an incredible boredom that could kill anyone. The sun was already starting to set and the clock tower had yet to begin … besides Shuichi was starting to get hungry and Ren must be famished … he must have been around … a day or two in this room with no chance of escape.

It was no surprise that he had been oddly quiet and unmoving but it was worrying how well he could stay still like a dead person. Shuichi had to poke him on multiple occasions out of worry and the result ended up always being the same.

“… Hey … I hope you don’t think badly of me for suggesting sending the kid to die, it’s just … this world is so despair inducing that even the best person starts to turn into a monster …”

“I did think badly of you … but you seem like a good person and depending on the situation a person might … actually will act out of character … therefore I’m willing to give you a chance to see how you really are” Ren sighed and apologized once again.

Silence fell on the room again. To Shuichi’s right, Hayato was still passed out and he sure needed the rest, to his left was Ren eagerly awaiting for their time to act and … well, on Ren’s own words, get the fuck out of the deadly kink party.

… Yeah … that was the last time Shuichi was going to allow that set of words on that order to ever cross his mind again.

To distract himself he looked at his gun. Ren had returned him his glock 19, this time with more bullets to use and his combat knife … yet Shuichi was still afraid to attack these zombies. What if the people weren’t truly dead and it was just a crazy infection that could still be healed … he would be killing people that were stuck and maybe crying out for help … what was the tight thing to do … what.

“Yo, Shu-kun, quick thing I need to tell you, I might be armed to teeth but you will need to help me kill them and I can see the hesitation coming out from you” It was odd being addressed as Shu-kun … that wouldn’t stick … maybe

… “W-What” he yelped.

“Yeah, hello, my Ultimate Talent always makes me pretty good at hitting a target but I am only human. Tch, if you’re like this, this far in the apocalypse you should just let me put a bullet in your head, that’s merciful at lea- … I’m sorry, confinement and lack of food is turning me into a jackass … I will do my best to protect you, Hayato and myself but … I will need your help … Can I count on you?”

 

_Yes … No … I don’t know!_

 

The panic hit him, his eyes darting from one to the other side, trying to avoid the question. From the corner of his eye he saw Ren’s expression slowly but surely changing into one of worry himself.

“Ngh” Hayato woke up “What happened?” he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Good afternoon Hayato-chan”

He blushed “H-Hi p-papa …” he looked at Ren and seemed hesitant.

“Hayato, Ren is a friend, he was just being careful … we’re going to leave soon so the fact you woke up will help us a lot”

Ren gasped. Hayato’s mouth slightly opens forming a smile so big, bright and warm. Shuichi and apparently Ren had not seen the sight in quite a while. “I-I’ll do my best not to be a burden!”

This could have been such a sweet and a somewhat heartfelt moment were it not for the constant banging on the door by the zombies on the hallway.

… No, thinking about that doesn’t matter right now, these thoughts can come when they are in a safe place not in this he-

Three heads shot towards the door once the loud sound of the clock tower bell began playing.

As expected of the mindless beings they began to storm other areas of the police station, areas that felt closer to the sound.

“W-We should move now … considering a-all odds, we have better odds of s-success while the b-bell is playing” Hayato was acting all shy … was it because of Ren? In all honesty the kid did not talk to Shuichi that well when they first met so maybe he was a bit shy.

“A good idea but I’m not too keen on taking advice from a child … no offense”

Feeling Hayato’s eyes on him only gave him a need to defend him … was … was that how it felt to be a father?

“We should actually do as he says, he is a pretty smart Ultimate, he knows quite a lot of things, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he calculated the odds” Hayato gave his father a warm smile.

“Hmm … very well then, let’s move on, but for your information, having the Ultimate Nerd with you and then coming here was pretty stupid”

“I … I’m n-n-not a nerd! I’m the Ultimate Child Prodigy!” The child pouted in a way that attempted to look scary but just made him a little adorable.

“Very well, but do be aware that my definition of Nerd is not that of mockery, I meant it in the way of someone who knows quite a lot and dedicates their time to learn more, but if you dislike the word I shall address your Ultimate talent as Prodigy instead of Nerd … What’s with the looks?” both Shuichi and Hayato had been giving him a weird look. The two looked at each other, then at Ren, then at each other and nodded, almost like they were having a mental talk with each other.

“It’s just … um … that sounded … not like you … well truth is we don’t know you that well so we kinda based how you were on the previous interactions” Hayato nodded once Shuichi finished.

Ren gave a nervous chuckle and then made a come hither motion as he moved to the door.

 

* * *

 

 

The trio left the - probably - only safe room in the godforsaken station and ran as fast as they could while the bell tower was playing. According to Hayato they had to take advantage of that time as best as possible to assure their escape.

Instead of waiting for it to stop playing they should move while the bell was playing, seeing that it would assure that all zombies would be moving away from the door. By moving while the zombies did the same, they could traverse to safety seeing that the sound of the bell would mostly cover the sound of them moving and provide the highest chances of escaping.

They continued to move through the deserted hallways, their goal the entryway.

“… Oh fuck” Ren exclaimed when they reached the entryway.

A small but significant group of zombie was piling against the door that led to the outside. Apparently, he had spoken a bit too loudly and exactly between the span of time between each time the bell would rung.

Slowly they turned to the trio. They began screeching alerting the distracted ones and they all began to move towards them.

Shuichi’s legs froze once again. He knew them, he knew each of them, fellow officers, good neighbors … he couldn’t bring himself to shoot them, he needed to, he had to, but no matter how much his brain told his body to move his body would simply refuse.

“Heheh…” both Hayato and Shuichi looked at Ren “Such a pathetic group … stand back Saiharas … I’ll show you all what the Ultimate Marksman can do”

Without hesitation or fear whatsoever of the creatures that were approaching him, he pulled out his own pistol. Shuichi recognized the design of the pistol, he was almost sure it was a Desert Eagle, a semiautomatic handgun … but it also didn’t look like one, it looked … modified.

With a smirk on his face he dashed at the group and kept shooting them in the head without failing while at the same time continuing to make them follow him in a path he deemed worth, it was almost like a dance where he was in control of what steps to take.

“P-Papa …” Hayato’s tiny hands tugged on his shirt.

Shuichi saw him pointing down the hallway they came from.

He couldn’t help but from gasping and tremble when he saw the zombie coming his way.

The first day he had come to work at the police station he was so afraid to fail, he was so afraid that not even his uncle was being able to calm him down.

A rookie that was around the same age as Shuichi but had quite a bit more experience of the job helped him get accustomed, he would even team up with Shuichi on many jobs.

“Y-Yoichi …” the zombie just growled and hissed as it moved towards his targets, Shuichi and Hayato.

The commotion seemed to have brought more zombies into the entryway but that didn’t seem to concern Ren. Each of them went for Ren who whistled at them, distracting them from the stunned Shuichi.

Step by step the zombie got closer.

“P-Papa!! Do something! … R-Run, walk away … Anything!”

The child’s words weren’t doing a thing for Shuichi, he was frozen as memories from his friend played in front of him.

_Again … pathetic … kill him_

 

“Huh!” it was almost like a trance, the fear that held him back gone, a shock crossing through his body, that weird relaxation and calmness ran through him.

His movements felt easy, almost like he was a feather floating on the wind.

Hand grabbed the pistol, pointed it at his formed friend “I’m sorry” and with that his friend, Yoichi, fell silent to the floor, a bullet hole now on his head.

“I don’t mean to end the party this early your majesties, but …” the two looked at Ren, a surprising amount of bodies lingered on the floor but more zombies were coming for them, this time from the second floor “Can we get the fuck outta here!” he turned back to the zombies, finished reloading his pistol and resumed shooting, each shot not wasted as they hit the target right on their weak spot.

“W-We need to m-m-move” Shuichi didn’t needed to be told twice, especially from Hayato.

The two ran towards the door, leaving Ren for last seeing that he was the most skilled at killing zombies and handling weapons in general.

Once those doors opened Shuichi felt relieved like never before. There was a chance of the streets being filled with zombies, heck even a group of scavengers that could maybe attack them, but the street was deserted.

Escaping the police station was a gamble, a big one, seeing that they didn’t know what expected them outside. The fact the street was empty must have been lady luck smiling upon them.

From behind them, Ren closed the station doors rather harshly and walked down the stairs like nothing had happened.

“Well … we’re free now so … that’s a plus … where to now”

It was actually scary how calm he was from what had just happened. It just showed that he must have had been fighting zombies … or something much more dangerous for quite a while.

 

* * *

 

 

Returning to Rantaro’s house had been easy, the streets were still mostly empty from zombies but now that wasn’t the case.

Day had turned to night and the zombies patrolled the streets for signs of life.

Hayato was put in bed alongside a wet cloth on his forehead and the remaining of the medicine that was on the house … Rantaro might’ve scavenged quite a few things but food had quite little, medicine was even lesser than the food on the house.

At the very least the child showed signs of recovering, the zombies weren’t aware of where they were at and the best of it all, everyone was still healthy … well healthy as in not infected but they all were quite thin, especially Hayato … he and Rantaro must have been eating quite little in order for the food to last this long.

“P-Papa … d-don’t g-g-go” he mumbled on his sleep.

It touched Shuichi’s heart to see that the child cared so much for him even if they had met in such a short while.

“You won’t be abandoned Hayato, just rest up now”

The child sighed and the corners of his lips turned slightly upwards, slightly enough to see a smile.

Feeling relived that the child wasn’t in any pain and seemed to be doing better, Shuichi left the room without making a sound as to not wake up Hayato and went downstairs to where his new friend and current guest was at.

Ren’s outrageously large backpack was lying on the couch while the man himself was looking through the boarded windows.

Shuichi didn’t even to get close to him or even call him for him to flinch and send a look towards Shuichi “Is he … doing well?”

Ren sounded genuinely concerned for Hayato “… I never meant the awful things I said in the police station … and he’s just a kid, he still has his whole life in front of him”

“Yeah … he’s doing much better. I reckon tomorrow he’ll be doing better”

“Thank god” Ren sighed.

He left the boarded windows and went to sit on the sofa, right next to his backpack “So Shu-kun … from what I can see from you, you aren’t that familiar with the apocalypse are you?”

There was no point in denying that after his terrible performance at the police station “I was actually in a coma for quite a while … according to Rantaro I was in a coma for four years … before the apocalypse started, I woke up yesterday”

“Ah I see, that explains your fear, dumb moves and … well pretty much all the stupidity you have that Hayato lacks” wow … a bit harsh “But don’t take this like I’m offending you, it is but normal for a rookie to the apocalypse … killing them gets easier and the small mistakes end up vanishing”

“By mistakes you mean …” Shuichi was curious to know what where the mistakes he had been doing so far and who better than someone who had already seen so much of the apocalypse to tell him.

“Well for starters, that long hair of yours is a problem, your gun has literally no modifications to improve it, your gun isn’t that powerful, you’re overly trusting, not that athletic, you think too much before acting, you only attack while on adrenaline … shall I continue?”

“Ah … please stop, I’m already feeling bad enough”

“… sorry … if you want I can give you and Hayato-kun a haircut”

“That would be good, thank you”

Ren pulled out some tools from his backpack, a pistol and then began tempering with it.

That was another thing that Shuichi didn’t know about the male, he knew he always hit his mark and was fast with a gun but he didn’t know he could tamper with the weapons.

Huh, you learn something new every day …

“I have to ask, do you have any plans Shu-kun?”

The question sounded slightly weird with his tone of voice “Well … I do have one thing to do in town but then I plan on leaving to the safe zone and find my family”

“…”

“What’s with that odd silence … and that look?”

Ren seemed hesitant “The safe zone you’re talking about … it has fallen and no more safe zones were made, the residents managed to escape it but I don’t know what happened to them”

His hopes began to crumble a bit, his one lead to find his family was gone … but at the very least there was still a chance, a small one but still a chance.

“What was it you needed help with?”

Was he concerned? Could he tell how badly that was affecting Shuichi??

“I …” Ren remained silent, eyes still focused on the pistol he was working on “… I need you help to bring Kaede’s body here … one of Rantaro’s last wish was for her to be brought here and placed on the grave next to him”

Ren stopped his actions, the tools were gently placed on the table.

“Very well, I shall assist you with that … I met Kaede-san … she was very nice and this is the least we can do”

Nice …

That word wasn’t enough to describe how kind she was to everyone, even if they were bad people towards here she always did her best to make them feel welcome and that she wasn’t mad.

“… Shu-kun … by this logic, I assume you don’t have anywhere else to go and this place will be dangerous with only you and Haya-chan”

_Haya-chan ... sounds … a bit weird …_

 

“What do you mean by this?”

“Easy, this place is dangerous and mostly devoid of supplies, I suggest that you and Hayato come with me, with a bigger group we can survive better against zombies, I’m also going to the ex-safezone so if you want to find clues about the whereabouts of your family you can”

“R-Really” wait … he couldn’t be doing that from the kindness of his heart … could he?? “… is there a catch to that?” he asked

“… your … distrust on me is understandable … I’m going there because I need to find a person and knowing that you may want to go there we should move with bigger numbers”

The deal was … well on his uncle’s words, a pretty sweet deal … “Who is the person you’re looking for?”

“… the only one can make sure that we can outlive this hellhole”

That … really didn’t answer anything.

Ren must have understood that Shuichi was really clarified.

“I’m going there to join back with the Ultimate Supreme Leader, Kokichi Ouma, Leader of the small organization I’m in … DICE”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're all wondering when our lovely purple haired liar will show up ... well ... he might get his spotlight on the next chapter ... or maybe the one after that ... who knows.


	5. Courage isn't easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi enjoys the last moments in Amami's house before the group has to depart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, my pc has been acting up again, this time however I lost quite a bit of stuff that I can't recover easily. I had written down everything planned for most of my stories and now it's all gone, meaning that most of my stories will go on a Hiatus until I remember exactly everything ... that however will be difficult seeing that I'm kinda forgetful ... that's why I summarize the plot before actually writting the chapters.

With the sun proudly rising came a new day and with it there would also come troubles.

Both Shuichi and Ren were sitting next to each other, both a bit breathless, Shuichi more so than Ren.

“I am not … doing that … again” with that he got up, grabbed some water and drank it “Uwaah, that’s better, I’m so glad Amami made a water rain filter, like that we can have water with less worries”

On the previous night when Shuichi had decided to actually explore the house he and also Ren found quite a few things that were not there before the apocalypse. One of these said things was a working rain water catcher with a filter providing clean drinkable water. Another thing that they also found was an untended garden with quite a few vegetables that were no longer good. If he had to take a guess that was Kaede’s doing, she and also Shuichi loved gardening … Rantaro probably couldn’t stand looking at it, the garden must have brought happy memories of Kaede, which must have been painful for Rantaro.

Finally they found a working traditional bath on Rantaro’s home, sure they needed to burn some wood and needed someone to keep the fire in check for the water to be pleasantly warm but not scorching, but hey, he wasn’t and wouldn’t dare to be picky in these times.

Getting up from the chair Shuichi went to the backyard, the place was safe to be on, Rantaro had made a wall like barricade around the place preventing any of the zombies to get close or see them.

His eyes fell on the graves.

Two closed graves to be exact.

He and Ren had brought Kaede’s body when the clock tower bell had first started playing in the ungodly hours of the morning.

She was now buried and next to her most loved person in the world. It was sad to look at the graves, it was sad to think two of his best friends were dead, it was devastating having to accept that … but the truth was all Shuichi had right now, he couldn’t try to fool himself with a white lie to feel better, there was no way to turn around how he felt.

They were dead, they couldn’t be brought back … but at the very least, among all that gloom, they had died humans instead of monsters and were now together both in spirit and flesh.

Shuichi was sure that both Rantaro and Kaede had wished him good luck before they finally found peace.

“There there, no need to rush things” at the door was Ren and Hayato who seemed to have just woke up. He seemed much better than before, face not so red and not in pain.

“Papa!” he left Ren’s side and hurriedly made his way to Shuichi, hugging him by the waist.

“Morning Hayato-chan”

He looked up, blushing at the usage of chan, but Shuichi still wasn’t sure if he didn’t like it or not.

“How’re you doing?”

“Much better, thank you!” that innocent childish smile was such an incredibly nice sight in this hellish world … Shuichi couldn’t let him suffer “Ah, by the way papa, I’ve heard we’re moving away, is that true?”

Ren must’ve told him that this place was dangerous … or something among those lines.

“Yeah, we’re moving away to find … your grandfather and grandmother”

“Yay! I have always wanted to meet them …”

He was such a happy child … was it really a good idea to bring him along to an ex-safe zone … the answer was, most likely, no, but Shuichi couldn’t leave him alone.

“I’ll go pack my stuff papa” with that he left and entered the house again.

“He’s a good kid, a strong one too … keep him close to you at all times, got it?” Ren’s voice was calm and cold, yet Shuichi felt like the other was worried for the safety of the child.

“I’ll do that”

Shuichi took one final look at the graves. A feeling of guilt washing over him, guilt for not being there for them. If somehow he had woken up sooner, much sooner, he might’ve been able to save Kaede by hiding her in the hospital with him … but that was a big stretch … he could have saved Rantaro … it had all been a matter of minutes … if he had managed to meet up with him before he got bit he would still be here …

… No … that wasn’t his fault … he shouldn’t blame himself for things he had no control over. Kaede and Rantaro were dead, he had to accept that and live on. It was tough but that was the only thing he could truly do.

“Yo Shu-kun”

He snapped out of his thoughts after hearing Ren calling him.

“All the needed stuff are packed and Haya-chan is getting his stuff … you seem tense, why don’t you go take a warm relaxing bath and before you answer me do be aware this might be the last time you have the privilege of warm water”

A bath … that sure was appealing, Shuichi has felt heavy since he woke up from the hospital, and taking in consideration the info provided by Rantaro and Hayato it had been quite a while since he had a bath. Hayato on the other hand always seemed clean and light … probably he used the place all the time, Hayato kind of struck him like the kind and happy child that disliked dirty things or places … maybe he could be wrong, but who knows.

“… Sure … I guess I can take one before we leave”

 

* * *

 

 

Shuichi had to admit that the bathhouse was actually rather spacious for a handmade traditional bathhouse. The warm water on his body, however, made him relax so greatly, how could he have forgotten how good it felt to take a warm bath like that.

Sadly, he didn’t have the luxury to take time on his bath. Ren although seeming like someone who tried to keep his cool, also looked like he wanted to hurry and meet up with this Ouma guy. Sure having the Supreme Leader on their side would drastically raise their odds of survival and, logically, the number of people on the group, yet he felt like Ren wasn’t telling him everything, for example, when they were on the police station he looked like he was going to say something but then changed the subject by looking at the time.

With a sigh he dipped his entire body underwater and stayed like that for a while. For him that was calm and relaxing, it helped him think whenever he was like this for a bit …

Rising from the water he concluded that he was indeed doing the best choice. Going with Ren, even if he was withholding information, was the best one. More numbers meant more safety, more people to scavenge, more resources, more everything. It also had more down sides like, more food to feed them all … but that was really the one that Shuichi could think of right now.

In other words there were more advantages than disadvantages, and as both options didn’t have an emotional impact made the decision much easier.

With a sad feeling creeping on him, he took one final look to the bathhouse as he got out of the tub, wrapped a towel on him and left, knowing that this was most likely the last time he was going to be having a warm relaxing bath.

Next to the door was a pair of clothes for him. Ren must have done that. There was a white button up shirt a pair of jeans and underwear, his shoes but … cleaned, some of his gun’s magazines and that was it.

After getting dressed he returned to the main part of the house just to find Ren using some tools on his gun.

“I have taken the liberty of upgrading your gun, it holds more bullets and its fire power is has high as I could make it” Shuichi took the gun, it felt slightly heavier and significantly different but it was still a gun that he could easily use.

“Thanks” the other nodded with a small smile and headed to the door.

Next to it were two backpacks. Ren’s crazy big one and another one, probably for Shuichi. All the necessary supplies must’ve been on them.

“I’m ready” Hayato said while running down the stairs “Here” he said handing his own backpack to Ren, it was smaller than the others but still better than nothing.

Wasting no time at all, Ren opened it, looked inside and began to look rather surprised. Hayato must have done a good job at selecting what to bring, sadly, Ren’s expression didn’t last.

“What is this …” he pulled out a teddy bear.

“T-That’s Mister Bear, I bring him with me everywhere I go” it was actually cute, sometimes he would forget Hayato was a kid with how bright he was.

“You’re not bringing this, it’s useless and it takes space”

“B-Bu-Bu … but … its Mister Bear … I need him … I … I …” tears began forming on the corner of his eyes “I … understand …”

Shuichi hated that look on Hayato.

“Ren … surely we can bring something so light like that bear right?” Ren shot him a displeased look “… If we bring that we occupy space, with occupied space we can’t get more important stuff, imagine if we find the cure for mankind, what then?”

“Well … this isn’t the cure for mankind so we can br-“

“What if …”

… that successfully shut up Shuichi.

There was a tugging on his sleeve “I-It’s okay papa … I’ll m-manage …”

The two of them left the house first. Shuichi took one final look to the house and then looked at the teddy bear with the purple ribbon on the table.

“...”

 

* * *

 

 

The three were walking to the outskirts of town, Ren had said he had a vehicle to take them to the city he had mentioned to Shuichi.

Hayato however wasn’t paying that much attention, he had been pouting since he left the house. Shuichi felt bad for how sad he must be feeling.

Ren was going forward, clearing the path from the few zombies that were on the street. They had all joined near the clock tower again because of its scheduled time to play the bell.

“Hayato-chan … are you mad?”

“…” he was mad.

They continued down the street.

Zombie after zombie was killed by Ren. He was the Ultimate Marksman but he did have quite the skills on killing without a gun … maybe the fact he had been on the apocalypse since day 1 had everything to do with that fact.

In fact that made Shuichi wonder more about Ren. All he knew about him was that he was abandoned by his family, he and Ouma, whoever he was, were together since kids, they made an organization where Ouma was the leader and that the group had died entirely with exception of Ouma and Ren.

Shuichi wasn’t still sure of why Ren was here. Why would someone come to a town were danger was at basically every corner??

“We’re almost there” he said as he continued to lead the group to the outskirts of town.

They continued to follow the other. Shuichi noticed the coffee stands near the exit of town owned by an incredibly nice elderly couple, they always loved to see Shuichi, there were even times that the coffee was free for him. Their shop, however, no longer looked like it did in his memories. There were broken windows, the wood was rotting, the door broken down, in other words, the place had been completely destroyed.

The town Shuichi had grown in, the place he loved so much, each shop that he used to go that brought to him or the owners joy, it was all gone. In a way it hurt him, it hurt to see the state of the town, it hurt to know that most of the people were dead or turned, it hurt knowing that he had to leave town.

Turning his face away from the town, he continued to follow Ren, Hayato following closely behind Shuichi. The sleuth had failed to notice the worried look the child had towards him while he was lost in thoughts.

They continued to follow Ren along the field towards some trees until they heard the shouts and groans of zombies … however these weren’t normal, they seemed more like screams in between gasps.

“Shit” Ren whispered “Runners”

“Runners?” the two Saiharas asked.

“In that town we only had walkers, the weakest specie of infected, they have bad eyesight and bad movement, these however are called runners and as the name implies, these can run. Not only that but they also have better eyesight than regular walkers, their ability to hear is equal to that of walkers and … unlike walkers, these put up a fight, they will punch you if they get close enough, but if your guard is down they will try to bite you, trust me, these mindless fuc- … monsters are super predictable, like walkers, just deadlier.”

And here was Shuichi thinking his day couldn’t go worse.

The three peeked their heads through the bushes and noticed three runners next to an RV.

 

_That must be Ren’s vehicle_

 

Shuichi had to say that the difference between runners and walkers was pretty big. As of physical differences, the skin of walkers was completely rotten, almost brownish, runners had skin with more color, more red, but not blood, their skin was just the human skin with a red tone. As of other differences, walkers seemed to have a hard time standing or even moving due to rotten muscles and flesh, runners however, didn’t show these problems, in fact they looked ready to run a marathon. Finally, the biggest and most significant difference, these zombies, these runners were screeching … while they were holding their heads, as if they had one giant migraine.

“These infected somehow managed to … ‘turn back on’ their brain, but only partially, they can only give orders to the body as, move, run, attack with fists, scream, and in some rare cases, they can even grab and utilize a melee weapon, as a result for the brain to have some activity, they can’t really control the activity, it is small but still activity, therefore they’re holding their heads … do not mistake them with living beings, although a bit of their brain works, the rest is dead, they only keep their body from not rotting by the constant movement, forcing the still blood in them to move through their bodies” Ren whispered to them.

Shuichi could see on Hayato’s facial expression that this was new ground for him, he too must have not been aware of the different species of zombies … or how Ren called them, infected.

These runners were definitely a problem. Shuichi had seen this apocalypse with light from _The Walking Dead_ but now he could see that that was not the case, different species meant different abilities and things that each species would do, meaning that the danger level would suddenly go up, meaning that his mistakes could become fatal the last time he does one.

“Hey, three zombies, one for each of us, Shu-kun, you take the one on the left, I’ll take the one on the right, Haya-chan take the one on the far back”

“W-What!” Hayato screamed while in a whisper.

“Yeah, what Ren? You plan on making him fight that thing, he doesn’t even has a weapon and I’m not giving him a knife” Shuichi didn’t want Hayato to endanger himself if he could prevent it.

“I’m not giving him a knife, we only have one knife, your combat knife and the blade is a bit blind, I’m giving you a shiv, I’m taking one for myself, but for Haya-chan I have something different” his backpack hit the ground slowly and he pulled out a pistol that Shuichi didn’t know of, probably one of his famous modified models.

“Here Haya-chan, I modified this pistol specifically for you” the small pistol was perfect for someone of Hayato’s size and age “I made sure to increase its fire power but also to decrease its recoil so that it wasn’t too much for you yet it was usable, the pistol can only fire six bullets before you need to reload, as of reloading you need to do it bullet by bullet instead of using a clip or magazine”

“I’m still against this” Shuichi took the pistol from both Ren and Hayato “He’s just a child” Shuichi made sure to not raise his voice seeing that the dead were really close.

“He is a child but he needs to learn this, better sooner than later, what’ll happen if you or even me isn’t there with him when he’s attacked by a infected, or worse, a human”

Shuichi opened his mouth to present a counter argument but his voice refused to come out. Deep down he knew that Ren was correct. He and Ren wouldn’t be around Hayato 24/7, he needed to learn a way or two to defend himself.

Again he felt tugging at his sleeve.

“P-Papa … it’s okay, Mister Amami taught me how to use a gun a-and I practiced too with a toy gun so I can aim well” Hayato seemed confident on his own skill.

“O-Okay Hayato-chan …” as he went to grab the pistol from Shuichi’s hand he moved his hand away “Use it for emergencies only, got it?” Hayato nodded excitedly.

Hesitantly Shuichi handed him the weapon.

“T-Thank you papa” Hayato was always so nice and polite … Shuichi wanted to keep him like that for as long as possible, but he knew that sooner or later Hayato would have to be colder towards others in this world, he just hoped that it wouldn’t be soon.

“Okay, here Shuichi” Ren gave him a shiv “You get the left runner, I get the right runner, and remember, strike the head hard” the sleuth nodded “Haya-chan, once those two are down shoot the one closest to the RV, maybe let her get closer for guaranteed shots” the child nodded.

Slowly Shuichi, Hayato and Ren got away from the bush. Hayato remained close to it while Shuichi and Ren sneaked closer and closer to their targets. Ren, even sneaking was amazingly fast, he was already behind his target and at the same time, out of the other zombie’s line of sight.

Once the two were in position they nodded at each other.

Ren stabbed his infected with all his strength on the head, successfully killing it.

Shuichi looked at his. Hands began to tremble, eyes were locked on him. With the panic rising he shoved the knife on the head of the infected, missing the brain completely.

The infected shouted, alerting the other. He quickly turned around and threw himself on Shuichi grabbing both his arms in the process.

“PAPA!”

“SHUICHI!”

With all his strength he pushed the zombie away who kept biting into the air, attempting to bite him. However, these zombies appeared to have muscle strength unlike the others, it got closer and closer to Shuichi’s neck, his fear rising.

Finally Shuichi’s arms lost the strength to keep the being away, his teeth grew dangerously close to his neck until the being was pulled away from Shuichi by Ren. He pulled out another shiv and shoved it in the zombie’s head.

One more scream came. The third infected began to run towards Shuichi, he had no way to escape, he simply didn’t have the time. Shuichi looked at death right in the eye.

The infected fell to the floor after four gunshots to the chest. It still tried to get Shuichi while it seemed to twitch in pain.

Hayato approached the being and shot bullet after bullet on the being’s head. Even after the pistol ran out of bullets he kept trying to shoot it over and over again.

“H-Hayato-chan?” Shuichi had barely even noticed how his breathing had gone ragged, but he didn’t care about that, right now he was afraid of the mortified look on Hayato’s face while he kept trying to shoot the dead zombie, he almost looked like he was stuck in a trance.

“Hayato!” he called again, this time causing him to flinch and look at Shuichi.

“P-Papa!” he ran to Shuichi and hugged him “A-Are you o-okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I didn’t get bit, thank to you and … Ren …?” Ren was looking down at Shuichi with a dark look on his face.

Hayato quickly released Shuichi once he felt him tense up.

When Hayato released Shuichi, Ren punched him hard on the face.

“Gah!”

“Papa! … What’re you doing to Papa!”

That dark look remained on his face “You hesitated … I’ve told you how easy it was, I told you what you needed to do … and you hesitated”

Shuichi rubbed the left side of his face, it was stinging “R-Ren?” he looked at him again and this time it seemed like he had broken composure. He had a look that Shuichi had seen before, the look of a child who held back the will to cry.

“… Just … get in the RV”

“Ren wait I’-“

“GET IN THE FUCKING RV” with that Ren entered the vehicle and started the engine.

Hayato offered a trembling hand to Shuichi who gladly took it, the two then entered the RV and closed the door shut.

“Kid … you need your sleep …” in the back of the vehicle was a bed, Hayato seemed reluctant to go there but once Shuichi went with him it didn’t take long for Hayato to fall asleep. Shuichi noticed him to be a bit restless on his sleep. Maybe he was having a nightmare.

The RV was moving towards their destination and Ren wasn’t looking.

Carefully he took out from his backpack Hayato’s teddy bear and placed it next to him. Two tiny arms quickly wrapped themselves around the bear “… Mister … Bear …” Hayato mumbled as he stopped moving on his sleep and then began smiling.

 

* * *

 

 

Not having anything to do but watch Hayato sleep, Shuichi decided to join with Ren on the passenger seat next to him.

Ren avoided eye contact with him, he was still mad.

“I’m sorry”

“I’m sorry”

Their eyes briefly met.

“Go first, I hit you so … it’s just fair”

“Very well … I wanted to apologize … you’re right, I froze, I panicked, I don’t know why but I just did, I didn’t want to panic or anything but I did”

“… I wanted to apologize for hitting you … seeing what happened brought back some unpleasing memories to me and I took out my anger on you because of that mistake … I’m sorry”

The only sound that remained was of their breathing and of the vehicle going down the road.

“You don’t have to apologize” Shuichi said breaking the silence “You … in a way you were right on hitting me … I’m so pathetic that I can’t even do something like that right …”

Ren allowed himself to look at Shuichi “Being pathetic has nothing to do with what happened, the problem you have is, you don’t have the will to do dirty your hands for those who need you, you don’t have the strength of will to lock your feelings … only when you feel the adrenaline run through you is when you do”

Ren … wasn’t wrong.

When Rantaro asked him to kill him Shuichi managed to do so, he killed his friend. On the police station he could have killed the zombie on the entrance but grew afraid. Not of the being in front of him but of the action. When Hayato was in danger he froze and only took action when the danger began to close itself on Hayato … Ren wasn’t wrong. Shuichi didn’t want to get his hands dirty, and he hated the fact that he couldn’t do so.

“Is your face still hurting?” Shuichi nodded “Good … let the pain teach you one thing, this is a cruel world where all of us must play our part. There will come a time where you will need to cast your fear away, be ready for that day Shu-kun”

Well this was turning a bad turn. Shuichi had hoped for an apology on both ends and then for them all to get along again … it wasn’t going to be that easy was it?

Maybe, changing the subject so that they could bond over something??

But what would get his interest and also change his opinion over Shuichi

…

“Ren-kun you mind answering a question for me?”

“Shoot it”

“I noticed that the runner that Hayato shot seemed to be feeling … pain … was it really?”

“Of course, the brain is active although partially, runners can feel pain and the best thing is that if you get enough shots on them, even if not on the head, the pain will be so intense that the brain will shut down, in other words they die again”

_Huh so that’s why_

 

“Do know that there are more species of zombies in this world, the two you’ve seen so far, walkers and runners are … well, the less dangerous ones … in my opinion that is”

 

_There are MORE … oh good God help us_

 

Once again silence fell over the RV. Ren’s eyes never leaving the road in front of them.

Shuichi began to think. When they reach the city on the end of that road he would see the former safe zone his aunt and uncle were at, he could easily find clues seeing that he was the Ultimate Detective and then he could do his best to find them … he really wanted to see them again, hear them laugh, have dinner with them, have a cup of coffee with his uncle.

 

_Damn … I miss coffee_

Shuichi normally had a cup each morning to help him wake up for work but now he couldn’t … actually, it’s bad thinking like that, he can’t grant himself these privileges, not in these hard times.

“Soooo …”

“Huh?”

“We good? I hope you don’t hate me … I’ve given quite the awful idea about myself back on the police station and now”

“Oh … that … I’m still trying to figure you out, normally you seem like a calm person, when you get a weapon on your hands you change into someone much more … I don’t know, not so calm and more eager to defeat foes … but what happened just now is a completely different thing … you did say that it brought you some awful memories”

Ren flinched “Ah, but you don’t have to tell me anything-“

“I’ll tell you … you deserve to know … DICE used to be ten members big, now it’s only two members big … remember why?”

“A classmate of this Ouma?”

“Correct … you see, Leader was being bul-… constantly tormented by this individual … when the outbreak started all of us went to get our Leader and that’s when we saw him … tormenting Leader … most of us pointed our weapons at him and he backed off … the dead were coming and that was when he charged at the youngest of our group … She hesitated and got injured … we lost eight members to the dead and Leader went missing after that. Shortly after, I found Leader and then we continued on our path, we couldn’t even bury those we cared about, they had been devoured … that’s why I snapped at you”

Now Shuichi felt awful for even bringing up the topic. Just … who would be so much of a jerk to throw eight people to the dead just to save themselves after constantly bullying someone.

Yes, Ren tried to hide it but Shuichi pieced it together … just who could be that mean?

“You’re such a softy”

“Heh?!” Shuichi almost fell from his seat.

“You’re over there worrying about me and even Leader … you even brought Mister Bear for Haya-chan …you’re a good man Shu-kun, afraid but a good man” for one second he had thought that Ren was going to make fun of him or make him feel inferior … he really had quite weird social skills.

“We’re almost there”

Shuichi looked but didn’t see any indications of a city being nearby “I don’t see the city …”

“Ah, sorry, I forgot to tell you, we’re stopping by a warehouse, I came to learn that the chief of police was the owner of said place and he was … a bit crazy believing that the end of the world was near so he packed the place … the weirdo was right though”

“Chief Andrew was always like that … most of the time it was just for fun, but he was always serious about that topic”

Ren began to slow down the RV and parked right next to the warehouse.

“It might not look safe but trust me when I say that it is safe”

“Okay”

From the back of the RV they heard a small yawn.

With light footstep came Hayato, in his left hand was Mister Bear while he rubbed his eyes with his right one “Are we there yet?”

“No Hayato-chan this is just a quick stop”

“Yup, Shu-kun is correct”

The child blinked twice and then looked at the two “You … made up?”

Both of them nodded “Yay! I’m going with you two let me jus- *gasp* Mister Bear! … Who … How …” he finally noticed the bear.

“You’re still just a child … and it is just Mister Bear so I don’t see the harm.”

“Considering the spacious place that is the RV I am willing to allow Mister Bear and only him … but he has to stay in the RV when we get out” Hayato seemed to agree with that rule as he ran back to the bed and left his bear there.

The trio easily managed to enter the warehouse. The place had been scavenged like mad, everything was gone. Ren stopped in front of a steel door, next to it was a number panel.

“I assume that inside is a generator because every time someone presses a number it turns on” to prove his point he pressed a random number and it did in fact turn on.

“What is the code then” A good question that Hayato made.

“Well … it took me a while to figure out that the Chief Andrew that is painted on this door was the chief of police … but I did found a piece of paper entitled warehouse code … there’s just one problem”

He handed the paper to Shuichi and he felt a brick fall on his head … metaphorically.

“5 x 20^3 + 2 - 3 x 20 + 2^2 then divide it all by 3 x 2^2 - 5 x 20^2 + 2 and finally multiply it by 333 equal to …” he read it all out loud.

“You see what I mean”

“… Yeah … okay, 20^3 is … was it 20 times 20 times 20 or was it 20 times 20 and that result times itself??”

“I don’t know!” math … a thing he used to love so much, he always got high grades … problem is that he doesn’t have a calculator in hand.

“Papa”

“Huh … Yes Hayato?” he seemed displeased with the lack of chan on his name.

“Was Mister Andrew a person that liked more than necessary or absolutely the necessary?”

“Hmm” Shuichi remembered him always getting extra stuff just in case it was necessary “I’d say more than necessary … why you ask?”

“Well, the result is negative 6697.89, which can be turned into negative 6698 and as far as I can see the number panel lacks the negative symbol therefore the number we are looking for is either 6697 or 6698, now knowing that Mister Andrew was a man that preferred more than the absolute necessary I’m heading towards 6698 as the four digit code to the door … Why are you two looking at me like that?”

A child … had just defeated Shuichi … in one of his favorite subjects … of course he’d be impressed.

“… Don’t be sad if your guess is wrong” Ren walked to the panel and began inserting the code.

“Oh I’m not wrong, the answer is just plus or minus 1 so if it is not 6698 it means Mister Andrew acted out character and went with 6697, but I am pretty sure I’m right” Ren pressed the final digit and then the red light went green and the doors opened.

“Told you, hehe” Ren felt like that if his jaw could, it would dislocate and fall on the floor.

“A-As expected o-of the Ultimate C-Child Prodigy” Shuichi didn’t know whether to be scared or impressed to he went with both.

They wasted no time on entering the place and truth be told, if they were on the high sea and on a pirate ship they would have found a great treasure. The place was filled with boxes and from the look of it, they were really full … they had some stickers on them …

“Guns ... pistols … bullets … gun parts … tools … I’m in paradise!” Ren shouted happily. Shuichi could hear the sound of Ren grabbing a handful of bullets, some slipping through his fingers and hitting the floor.

A certain corner of the warehouse got Shuichi’s attention “So many books, and novels …” Those were useless, Shuichi knew it, but he loved a good book, and with the fact that some of the books weren’t of stories but of ways to survive in the wild or even books on how to repair certain things. This knowledge was essential to their survival if they couldn’t join up with a group that has a safe area going.

“Oh. My. GOD!” Shuichi and Ren shared a weird look and then looked at Hayato … and was he trembling?

“P-P-Papa … FOOD, so much canned food, but the best of it all, we can make PASTA! Oh, I haven’t had it in such a long while, this is a miracle, this is a … um … I mean … a good find, ehehe” his face grew red when he had looked at the looks the other two were giving him.

 

* * *

 

 

It had taken about one hour for them to gather everything into the RV and put it away decently … Shuichi couldn’t recall ever having to play Tetris in real life that was so hard. Each can, gun or book needed to be placed in a certain place or in a certain way, if not for that they would have departed half an hour ago.

They were once again on the move to reach the former safe zone. Hayato was carefully reading a book, a novel about a detective and a phantom thief and he seemed to be enjoying it.

Ren was happily driving the RV. That guy either loved guns and everything that has to do with them or he loved how theirs odds of survival had gone up in the blink of an eye.

The tense atmosphere that had been on the RV when Ren hit him was gone, it felt good how things were going now, it even felt hopeful.

Shuichi looked back at what he was doing. Some of the unopened boxes from the warehouse contained a variety of things prepared for an apocalypse. From the ones he had opened he found one with maps, many maps, by it a world map, maps of continents, countries, and even sea charts. Another box had clothing, from child to adult sizes, another box had CDs and Cassettes tapes. Another box had melee weapons.

Shuichi wasn’t very familiar with them, he even didn’t know what they were called. A few of them looked like giant knives, their blade as long as the forearm of a grown human.

Oh yeah, they also took the generator from the warehouse. Chief Andrew was very good at making things, he liked to call himself an inventor. The Generator wasn’t particularly big but it would be helpful if they ever needed electricity … they only needed to figure out how to get it running and what does it take for it to work.

Finally, he reached a group of boxes with a weird green happy face sticker on them, all of the boxes had them for a reason … perhaps there were many supplies so they had to put them into boxes?? That would also explain why some other boxes had different stickers.

Using the kitchen knife he had used on the others, he cut the duct tape and opened the box. Its contents surprised Shuichi to the point of dropping the knife on the floor.

“Hm?” the RV slowed down. Ren looked over his shoulder to see a stunned Shuichi “Anything wrong Shuichi?”

Upon hearing that, Hayato looked at Shuichi with concern “Papa?”

Shuichi gulped and blinked his eyes three times before rubbing them with his hands and then blinked three times more.

“I don’t know if I’m going insane but … this crate is filled with medicine …”

“What” the RV stopped abruptly.

Ren quickly joined him to see the box “Dear baby Jesus … we … we … WE HIT THE MOTHER FLIPPIN MOTHERLOAD, WOOOOO!” Ren began dancing happily with what they have scavenged “Oh this deserves a celebration, Shu-kun, hand me the first CD or Cassette tape you grab”

“Um” he looked at the mess on the table and grabbed one at random, handing it over to Ren.

“CD it is!” the RV once again moving.

Some CDs and Cassettes weren’t named so Shuichi didn’t know what music each had, the CD he had handed was one of the unnamed one.

Music began playing from the speakers, the tune was a familiar one.

“Oh, Oh, I know this one! Not appropriate for the situation but it’s a winner”

Music continued to play and Shuichi could’ve sworn he knew it. He sat on the passenger seat right next to Ren and then Shuichi realized what song it was when Ren started singing.

“She’s into superstitions. Black cats and voodoo dolls. I feel a premonition. That girl’s gonna make me fall” at that point he was already sure that the song in question was “Livin La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin. Shuichi was familiar with the song and the lyrics but was it right to sing that song especially knowing some parts of the lyrics might not be to Hayato’s tastes … he seemed more like a kid of … a different genre of music.

“C’mon Shu-kun, join the groove”

“She's into new sensation” Hayato joined them “New kicks in the candlelight, go papa!”

The stun was a bit … great … he had been caught off guard.

As the song continued Ren and Hayato shared a look. He was tapping his finger accordingly to the rhythm on the steering wheel while Hayato was moving his head slightly as if nodding.

“Upside Inside Out!” Ren pointed to Hayato “Livin La Vida Loca” the kid continued.

“She’ll push and pull you down!” again he pointed to Hayato “Livin La Vida Loca”

“Her Lips are Devil Red!" And they continued alternating the lines “And her skin’s the color mocha”

The fact that Hayato actually knew the lyrics to that song was the biggest surprise of them all. He was pretty sure Kaede would be against him heari- … Rantaro! Of course! Kaede was a fan of all kinds of lyrics but she wouldn’t let her child know that … soon of course. Rantaro on the other hand was a bit … wilder, so of course he would be showing Hayato to these kinds of music.

“She will wear you out!” “Livin La Vida Loca. C’mon!”

The two looked at each other “Livin La Vida Loca. She’s living La Vida Loca” they sung in unison.

Shuichi could hear Hayato giggle. Ren sharing the laugh with him, it was good seeing them get along … even if briefly … maybe just maybe …

“Woke up in New York City” two gasps “In a funky cheap Hotel”

“Yeeeaaahhh, that’s it Shu-kun, join the groove”

“You go Papa!”

The three then alternated the lines of the song with each other and it was pretty fun.

The hours continued to pass, this time however, much faster, at least in Shuichi’s opinion.

The next time that the RV stopped was on an area filled with trees, almost like entry to a forest. The sun no longer stood in the sky, having been replaced by the moon.

“Okay everyone, this is our final stop, tomorrow we’ll be going to town on foot”

“Eh, why? It seems less tiring to drive there”

“Hayato-chan’s right Ren-kun, why walk there?”

“Because … what was it … um … Darn it, there was something important I needed to tell you two but I forgot … Look I don’t remember but it is crucial to go on foot”

They had two choices, argue with Ren until he remembers, or actually get some rest.

Option number two seemed and was very appealing.

Shuichi joined Hayato on the bed on the back of the RV, Hayato seemed very excited for Shuichi to stay in the same bed as him. It was on moments like these that Shuichi could truly see how much Hayato cherished him and it was so sweet of the child.

Ren lied down on the floor after putting out a sleeping bag and wished the other two a good night.

Shuichi and Hayato were fast to fall asleep.

“Those two must’ve been really tired” Ren whispered and then sighed “Leader Kokichi … I wonder what you’re doing right now … I hope you’re safe …”

 

* * *

 

 

“S-Stop it p-plea-gah … n-n-no!” he screamed as the other individual hit him with a steel bat on the face, over and over again.

The other man stopped attacking the other with the blood stained bat. He held his chin and pointed the male’s face upwards “Now now … do I have to get rougher with you?” the other lifted the bat and let the tip rest at the other’s bruised cheek, purposely applying strength so that it would hurt more.

“F-F … Y-You … you should be dead … m-m-monster, no one … no one can survive that … h-how … how … h-how are you alive … HOW YOU FUCKING PRICK” the said to his assaulter, he attempted to attack but having both arms and legs tied to the chair he was in he couldn’t really do much.

“Ah … I see” he retracted to a nearby table, leaving the bat there and bringing a small sharp knife. The man stuck to the chair gulped.

“S-Stop it … he suffered enough!” another man, tied up on the floor, shouted at him, his shouting completely ignored once again.

Each step was slow and light towards the bound man on the chair “Here’s the deal buddy” he changed the way he held the knife and shoved the blade in the other’s knee “AHHH, GAAAHH, STOOOP!” he kept screaming in pain.

“I was speaking” he twisted the knife, causing the other to scream even more. This time however he forced his screams down “Good boy … Oi, my eyes are up here” with the back of his hand he hit him on the chin upwards, causing their eyes to meet again “I have a map of the city … and you’re going to tell me where my stuff is at … ooooorrr, you can say bye-bye to your knee … feel like cooperating now?” if the other felt any will to keep fighting back, it died out once he saw the grin on the other’s face.

“Good boy” he shoved a pen on his mouth “Mark it in this map … if your buddy points to a different area then Imma pop your knee off, kaykay?” he nodded rapidly as his assaulter gave childlike giggles.

The map was raised and he drew a badly drawn X “It’s over there … I swear … ask him … he’ll tell you the same … I ain’t lying … I ain’t …”

“Good boy … and as a reward” he grabbed the knife, pulled it and slit the man’s throat.

He began drowning on his own blood, a look of betray on his face as he slowly stopped squirming, the face on his face dying out.

His sights fell on the other man on the room “Dude … Y-You … fuck you, I ain’t telling you shit!” seeing no impact whatsoever on the other male he began to grow worried as he simply continued to move forward.

“M-Move the fuck back you monster! You’re supposed to be dead! DEAD!”

He didn’t stop, if anything he walked slower and slower “W-Wait … do-don’t you wan-na k-know i-if h-h-he was l-lying, if you k-kill me I c-c-can’t tell you s-shit” he tried to bargain.

“That’s okay” he smirked “He wasn’t lying”

“W-Wait ple-!” he was silenced by his captive shooting him four times on the chest and then firing one bullet on his head and then on the corpse of the guy tied to the chair.

With both males dead … for good, he moved to the window that and removed the curtain allowing moonlight to light up the room.

“…” he sighed while looking at the night sky “Please … come back soon … Ren-chan”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention this before but this story won't go into Hiatus seeing that the file with this story's entire plot was saved in a flashdrive ... Kinda wished I had remembered to do that for the others but ... I was dumb -.-


	6. Ruthless Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally they reached what used to be the fabled safezone for the living.  
> They enter the city and the unexpected turns into reality.

Shuichi was not a fan of mornings, not before the apocalypse and most surely, not after the apocalypse, especially when a certain Marksman was being so loud.

However, the one sleeping next to him didn’t seem disturbed in the slightest. Hayato must be a heavy sleeper to not have noticed the noise.

Carefully he tried to slip out of bed but once the child felt the lack of the other’s body he grabbed onto Shuichi’s arm tightly to the point that he couldn’t actually leave without bringing Hayato with him.

Again, he carefully moved so that he wouldn’t wake up Hayato and carried him in his arms resulting in him making a happy like sound.

Pulling the curtain away revealed Ren sitting on the table of the RV messing with a … a gun … Shuichi didn’t know all models of all guns and pistols, only a few … actually, saying that he knew a few was already saying much, but he was pretty sure that the gun was a hunting rifle.

“Ah good morning Shuichi” he lowered his voice to a whisper “I see that young Haya-chan is a bit clingy”

Shuichi took the seat in front of him and noticed that Ren looked … distracted with … his face?

“… Did you um … sleep well?”

“I was sleeping well until you woke me up with all this noise”

“Noise?? I only dropped a few bullets to the floor”

“… then what was making all that noise?”

“Shu-kun, there was no noise … did you dream it up?”

He wasn’t really sure if he had dreamed it or not so he dropped the subject and focus on something else.

Ren was … modifying a hunting rifle but for what reason? Did he wish to be prepared for when he was going to need it or … for something else. The option that he just wanted to kill time was there in the air but something told Shuichi that although Ren didn’t seem the smartest guy, his actions had a meaning.

“Ngh … Papa?” Hayato’s eyes began to open and then focus on Shuichi. His cheeks began to light up “Uwah, P-Papa … um, g-good morning P-Papa”

“Oh my god, you’re so adorable” Hayato grew more flushed at Ren’s comment and he hid his face on Shuichi’s chest.

“Um …” changing the topic seemed rather nice now “So … Ren-kun, what’s the rifle for?”

“This is for you Shuichi, you’re going to need something stronger than that gun when we go into the city … I also remembered what I had to tell you!”

“I don’t think I’ll need that rifle, also what did you need to tell me?”

“You’re going to need the rifle, trust me, that city is both infested of humans and as you call them zombies, the city is split in two, the inner part is clear and is the dominion of the living, now the outer part is completely infested … the humans living there capture other humans to steal their things, enslave them and …” He did a motion with his hands signaling for him to cover Hayato’s ears “… and eventually rape them for sexual pleasure”

Shuichi had done well by following Ren’s request “What! You … I … You said it was a safe place!”

“Correction, I said the army left with most of the survivors, I never attested to the city’s safety”

That was, once again, correct, never once had he said that the city was a safe place.

“But you don’t need to have any worries, as long as we stick together I’m sure those guys won’t find us and if we do engage into combat just let me do the killing while Hayato hides and if the chance comes up, you shoot one of them … remember Shu-kun … it is us or them, and talking is not an option … trust me, may tried that just to get captured and killed when their worth was gone”

“I … I see …” he showed no signs of ever lying therefore Shuichi could trust him, but … could it be true? Had humanity stepped that low?

He did recall Ren saying something among the lines that this world caused even the best person to change for the worst … it would seem that Ren had been honest with Shuichi from the start.

Reluctantly he took hold of the hunting rifle … it was wrong to do this … wrong to kill other people when the world was this damaged … but if there was no talking to these people, Shuichi had to follow whatever Ren said in order to survive.

He hated to think like this but … Ren was right. The moment they were to step into the city it was going to be either them or these … bandits.

“… Wait a moment … why do we need to go into the city? Can’t your Leader just join us outside?”

“He can but he won’t, these people stole something rather important that needs to be recovered, what said thing was I do not know and Leader refuses to leave the city until he gets it back, besides, wasn’t your idea to look for clues of your aunt and uncle?”

His family … he had been so worried with other stuff that he had almost forgotten. With everything that had happened he only had one choice available, to follow Ren into the danger.

“Papa … can you let go of my ears … I want to change positions please” Shuichi did as asked and Hayato sat on Shuichi’s lap while facing Ren.

“Mister Ren … I’m a bit afraid of our odds … can you assure me that you have a safe path and a safe place for us to stay on?”

“Why of course Haya-chan, do you think that Leader and I didn’t secure some paths and a room or two?? Because we did.”

With that said the trio had a small breakfast with the supplies that they had managed to score. Although it was a small breakfast, it felt like Shuichi was eating at the table of a King, he could barely remember when he had last ate food that actually had flavor, at Rantaro’s place the food there lacked some taste for the time it had and how it had been conserved but not this time.

 

* * *

 

 

“I’ve got a bad feeling Papa …” they were walking down the road towards the city “P-Papa can I stay near you?” before receiving an answer Hayato was already next to Shuichi “S-Sure, Hayato-chan”

Children were often known for having higher senses than adults on some regards. A baby just by being held could tell if a person had good or ill intent when for an adult it was much more difficult.

Shuichi held Hayato’s hand, a gesture of kindness and safety towards the child as they passed by the cars that remained on the street.

They were dead, most likely. If any of those cars was still functioning then they wouldn’t be there.

Alongside some of the vehicles there were corpses - thankfully not zombies - of who were probably the owners of said vehicles or people who were traveling and met their end on this very road.

A part of Shuichi felt a duty to them, a duty to make a grave for each person and let them rest in peace, it was the right thing to do to them. Yet there was another part of himself, a part who was screaming and telling him to grow blind to them and keep moving, a part that told him that he couldn’t afford to waste the energy or time on them, a part who told him that his life was much more precious than graves for the dead.

Shuichi hated that logic. He hated it, hated it so badly … yet … he couldn’t deny that it was the truth.

By doing that not only would he tire himself but there was also the chance of being spotted by the people Ren mentioned, if that were to happen they would need to fight and even though Ren was the Ultimate Marksman, these are humans not mindless zombies.

“Once we’re into the city you can all forget getting out by the way we came in” he whispered to them as they approached the entry itself.

A warning, that’s what that was. The people in the city had become monsters and would do terrible things to people … this was probably how they managed to capture people.

Allow them entry to a somewhat secure city, close the entry with a human barricade and then corner them.

… At least that was what Shuichi had imagined, seeing that he had yet to see how these people did things.

 

* * *

 

 

They were led by Ren, movement fast yet careful. The sound of the wind echoing on the empty city streets, a few papers flying alongside the wind, yet no one was in sight.

Running from one side of the street and crouching behind a car, Ren made a come hither motion Shuichi and Hayato, who obeyed quietly and quickly.

Shuichi couldn’t see a person, he couldn’t hear anyone, the city seemed completely empty. Yet … there was one key factor in this apocalypse that gave the city away … no zombies.

The city, almost a metropolis, lacked the presence of the walking dead … _hey a pun!_

Shuichi shook his head, getting that out of his head. Puns, jokes, and any other kind of unnecessary though were unnecessary.

Right now, however, he could see through the farce. The city was sure to have a good number of people, before the apocalypse and, of course, before this safe zone falling. For that very reason, the lack of zombies was concerning.

This place didn’t have a clock tower so the case of what happened in his home town was out of the picture. Electricity was obviously out so they couldn’t be focused on anything that electricity could make work.

There were no zombies, no sound of zombies, but there were corpses around … corpses of humans before turning, corpses who lacked the infection on them, corpses who … were full of bullet holes on them.

“Psst!” hearing something that wasn’t the wind broke him from his train of though.

Ren was calling out to him, Hayato next to him. They were on what seemed a toy store calling for him.

Shuichi was about to run towards them when Ren made a different motion with his hand, a motion to hide.

Returning to hide behind the vehicle he noticed Ren closing the door’s shop and noticed their eyes through the boarded store window.

“Oh boy!” a voice came from the street.

Shuichi flinched and placed a hand over his mouth to prevent him from even making a noise.

A group of twelve men were walking to where Shuichi and the others had come from, the sleuth didn’t fail to notice how these men were armed to the teeth.

“I can’t believe that we spotted two guys and a child coming here, those fucks don’t even know what’s going to hit them” he heard the man in front of the group say. He sounded excited and happy.

Shuichi couldn’t actually believe that these people were sounding exactly how Ren had made them sound to be.

“I call the tall handsome dark blue haired man, he’s going to be my new toy, ehehehe” the man leading the group told the others.

“You can have him sweetie … I rather have the kid, just watching that awful look on such a cute child as I deflower him entirely of his innocence without a break and going rough … Ahhhh … I can’t wait” the bigger guy of the group hugged himself while speaking.

“Keep it in your pants dude” the last guy in the back began talking, unlike the others he seemed different, he seemed to look superior to the others.

From the group, Shuichi could see that nine of them didn’t speak and kept their heads down, unlike the other three … they were most likely rookies …

“Eh … going for the handsome blue haired guy and the kid … I guess I’m taking the brown haired one, it’s been quite a while since I had a … _good time_ ”

“Ahah, that’s right dude, let’s have some fun!” the first guy fist bumped into the sky, laughing out loud as they all turned the corner and increased their distance between them and Shuichi.

The toy store’s door was opened again, Ren made, once again, a come hither motion, still not uttering a word.

The fear of being left alone on plain sight where a group of people clearly had … perverse wishes, was enough for Shuichi to run as fast as he could into the store.

Hayato quickly hugged him once he was inside.

“Shu” Ren shot him a glare “You must be confident for getting distracted out there”

“I’m … I’m sorry”

Ren sighed with relief “Don’t sweat about it, in here we can have that luxury, they don’t really come into the completely boarded buildings unless they have to … let’s move before they realized we made it past them”

“P-Papa…” Hayato had grabbed a stuffed toy of a popular cartoon show mostly aimed at kids that even most adults liked, the stuffed toy of a certain, fennec fox like character.

“You like Eevee?”

“Eevee?” he asked and then looked at the fox toy and then at Shuichi.

“Mhm, the name of this fox is Eevee, he’s a pokemon, you’ve never heard of them?”

Hayato shook his head and the held the Eevee toy above his head “He’s … He’s cute”

Shuichi heard Ren sigh and then approached the two “… You and Eevee go along pretty well, don’t lose him” he said with a smile and wink.

Shuichi was surprised with that change in reaction from Ren, he had been so against Hayato’s other stuffed toy … was he … was he accepting the fact that Hayato was just a kid … that was nice of him.

“Let’s go you two” he opened up another door and they followed.

 

* * *

 

 

Shuichi couldn’t take his eyes off Hayato and the way he was carrying his Eevee. Safely in his arms while hugging it … he was really too good, especially considering he was the Ultimate Child Prodigy, a Ultimate that Shuichi expected not to be too in touch with his feelings.

“Careful where you go or lean against, the wood is old and frail” Ren informed them as they went up the stairs, their path badly lighted due to the boards and the dust on the windows of the building.

The place seemed to have withered quite a lot since when the apocalypse had started, there was no doubt on Shuichi’s mind that the building would fall apart if they weren’t careful … maybe that was a bit of a stretch, it was true that the wood looked frail, old and rotten and also that the place was also squeaking.

They continued down the old, dusty hallway until they reached what seemed living quarters.

“We’re going to stop here a bit, I need to think on our next move”

“T-T-Think on our next move, a-a-are y-you just … are you just doing stuff as they show up instead o-o-of having a p-plan?”

“Of course not Haya-chan, I just need to think a bit on where Leader might be at and where they are … they patrol quite a lot the inner city …”

Hayato didn’t seem pleased with the answer and just sat on the couch that stood farthest from Ren, said couch was also the one closest to the boarded window.

Shuichi took this chance to look around for a bit.

The … living room looking place had some open spaces, the area where they were at with the couches and a small table, a small kitchen that they could see from where they were, and two open rooms.

The kitchen was the first place that Shuichi checked having nothing but opened cans and rotting food, he tried to find anything that might serve as a weapon and found a shiv.

 

_Better than nothing I guess_

 

There was broken, dusty glass on the floor, alongside a dried red substance that Shuichi was far too familiar with for his liking … he would rather not know it … but now he couldn’t give himself the benefit of not knowing, he knew it, he couldn’t forget it, but he could leave.

Leaving the kitchen he went to the other rooms. One was a bathroom, the place was dark, dirty, dusty, a mess and had nothing that could be of use to them. A pair of spiders was somehow surviving in there.

 

_At least some sort of life can live in these conditions_

Finally, Shuichi went to the last room, the room seemed like a room for children to play in. His eyes fell on a piece of paper that didn’t seem as old as the rest of the things there, a letter.

 

“Sam, father had to leave during the night to find supplies and hopefully a way out of this hell of a city, our chances are way better with the dead outside this city than the living.  
Take care of your little brother while I’m gone. Remember you’re the man of the house so keep him and yourself safe.  
If I’m not back in two weeks, grab whatever supplies are left and try your way to escape this city.  
I love you, I love you two so much my sweet children.  
Good-bye and see you all soon.  
With Love.  
From Dad”

 

A letter from a father to his kids … it almost broke Shuichi’s heart, seeing how the people here were suffering because of those … those … those monsters … even the dead were more kind and merciful than these … demons wearing human skin.

The letter … had a stronger impact on Shuichi, he could feel his tears threatening to fall, he could feel how tight his heart had grown, yet he had to remain strong.

There was a door in the room he was in. Walking past the blurry pictures on the room he reached his hand to open the door.

The slow opening of the door alongside the squeaking made his body grow cold as he saw what lied in front of him.

Two bodies … of kids.

The bigger one was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall while the smaller one had his head on the other’s lap. A gunshot wound on each other’s head and a gun with two bullets missing on the bigger person’s hand.

On the wall, a small annotation.

“We’ll be with you soon dad”

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

Shuichi ran out of the room, he felt the urge to scream, he didn’t want to believe how these people had suffering. Ren had never lied to him.

Drowning his need to scream with their need to remain hidden he tried to distract himself. Looking around revealed to be one more door, this one however not open like the others.

As Shuichi reached to open said door someone grabbed his wrist.

Ren.

“Not that one Shu-kun …”

“Papa? … Are … Are you okay … you seem pale”

“Ah” Hayato really had amazing eyesight to be able to tell that when the place was so dark “I’m fine, it’s just … I don’t really like places that are this dirty” that was not a lie, Shuichi took proud on having a clean house, or room, or desk … he needed to have his space clean.

The trio was on the move again.

They passed by the door had told him no to open, Shuichi’s curiosity growing, wondering what was inside.

They went down another corridor.

Shuichi stopped in front of a desk with a mirror and two rings. He cleaned the mirror quickly with his sleeve, seeing his face in a very long time, he truly had lost quite a bit of weight, he then looked at the rings he held on his right hand and wondered, how must it feel to have someone that would love him as much as he would love them, someone who would never leave him, someone he could call his soul mate.

“Shu-kun!” he jumped after hearing Ren’s whisper shout.

He and Hayato were barely touching the door at the end of the hallway.

“Papa, if you’re tired we can stop here a bit, right Mister Ren?” he asked while putting his back against the wooden wall.

“Please stop calling me Mister Ren and call me Ren-ku- … GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE WALLS!”

The wall cracked with Hayato’s weight. The child, once feeling it, quickly ran away from it. The crack grew bigger and bigger reaching the ceiling and floor, spreading throughout the entire corridor. The ceiling’s cracks slowly growing bigger and bigger until … they stopped.

“Pfew, the place didn’t collapse, okay Shu-kun, I think yo-” Ren took one step forward.

The ceiling gave out and wooden beams fell down, blocking Shuichi’s path.

“Uwah!” Shuichi screamed as curtain of dust formed.

“Papa!” Hayato was about to run towards Shuichi when Ren grabbed him from behind.

“Stop, if you go there the floor might give out and you might get hurt, we won’t be able to save you”

“B-But … Papa!”

“I-I’m okay!” Shuichi shouted from the other side “W-What do I do, how d-do I get there?” the worry was dangerously growing on Shuichi’s voice.

“Oh god, Oh god … Okay, let’s see, oh god what if they heard … oh god …” the floor on Ren and Hayato’s side began to give out.

“Uwaahh!! P-Papa, I’m sorry, it’s m-my fault” he began to cry “P-Please P-Papa … I need you with me … I … I need Papa!”

“Hayato-chan” he halted his tears as best he could to focus on what Shuichi had to say “Stay strong for me and listen to Ren-kun, I’ll be there with you soon” the child nodded and wiped his tears.

“Okay, Okay … Shu-kun, I don’t know if they heard but … remember the door I told you not to g- OH SHIT THE FLOOR!” he opened the door behind him and pushed Hayato in as the floor was giving out beneath them “Go into that door Shuichi but don’t you dare make a noise in there or you’ll regret it trust me becau-GAH!” The floor gave out forcing Ren to run out of Shuichi’s field of vision.

The floor near Shuichi hadn’t given out yet giving him the chance to hear Ren as close as possible.

Knowing now where to go he ran back to the door he had been curious about turned the handle and the inside looked worse than the living room or hallways they had passed by.

Shuichi gathered his courage and entered the room. The door squeaked behind him and closed itself.

The group had been separated and Shuichi was now more worried than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm back, I know I said I was going to a more frequent post schedule but I'm not having as much time as expected, I'm sorry about that, as long as I'm as busy as I am right now I can only post updates with big breaks in between days, I expect to change this once I am done with all my assignements and tests.  
> I also want to thank everyone that has waited for this chapter.  
> Sorry that it is kind of small though, with trying to write, keep up with school and trying to get all my lost works back I haven't had much free time.


	7. City of Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being seperated from Shuichi, Hayato and Ren only have but one choice. To go advance further into the city.

The one person in his life that he needed no longer was there because of him being dumb. The one person he wanted to be safe so that he would always see him no longer was there.

All that remained there was the squeaking sound of the rotting wood, the sound of heavy breathing and the sobs of child.

“P-Papa…” he kept on repeating in between sobs while remaining still, sitting on the stairs.

He might’ve put his father in danger so greatly that he could die … and it was his entire fault.

In a way, a somewhat deplorable view of the child that seemed so happy, sometimes somewhat concerned or afraid, but always happy, and very mature … Ren would forget at times that the kid was still just that, a kid … a mature one at that, like, what kind of kid speaks the way he does, a five year old no less …

He got his answer once he reminded himself of the child’s Ultimate Talent, he was a Child Prodigy, and so it wasn’t that surprising for him to have somewhat of a more mature mindset and a wish to further learning.

“P-Papa … I’m s-s-sorry … Pa-Papa … I want … I-I want Papa …”

“Hayato … c’mon get up, we need to move” Ren warned, concern fueling his voice.

It was mean of him to try to boss the child around, especially with how frail he looked right now … frail … so frail … just like …

Quickly he bit his lower lips to force his mind elsewhere to keep the memories at bay, memories he would prefer to be gone, memories he had no need for in the moment.

One glance at a broken window quickly forced him to grow wary.

“P-Papa … Papa …” he kept repeating, his hug growing tighter and tighter on the Eevee plushy.

The wooden stairs began cracking under him, a never ending taunt forcing him to decide on what should be done, something Ren wasn’t really good at.

Ren looked at the crying child, gulped down the anxiety and hoped that whatever being that was still looking over them had it in itself to forgive him for what he was about to do.

Holding back all hesitation he threw his fist against the wall “Hayato!” the kid flinched in fear, taking out his face from the plushy and raising it to meet the other “I am done! Get the hell up, now! … Or I swear to god that I will leave you here all alone” he threatened but didn’t really stood behind any of the words he had just spout.

Hayato’s tears and sounds ceased, he wore a blank unreadable look towards Ren … that look was so similar to Leader’s …

 

_Shit, was that too much?_

 

Not wanting to spook the child more than he already had, he dropped the child but that seemed to have had the opposite effect seeing that said child lowered his head and began mumbling some stuff that Ren could not hear.

“Kid …” no change, he just kept looking at Ren with big empty eyes … that was quickly growing weird.

“Hayato-chan?” the normal flustered Hayato didn’t show up “Haya-chan??” … now he was much more worried than before, the child never acted that way, _never._

“…” he whispered.

“What?” Hayato had whispered so softly that Ren didn’t understand even a word.

“N-NO!” now it was Ren’s turn to get surprised. Almost in less of a second, Hayato threw himself from where he was sitting to attach both his arms around Ren’s legs, keeping him still on a tight embrace “N-NO, P-Please don’t leave me, pl-PLEASE!! Pa-Papa said … to b-be with you … do-don’t leave me … don’t leave me all a-alone … do-don’t … don’t, I’ll b-b-be g-good I-I pro-promise I-I-I … waahhhh” the child broke down in tear, legs failing him and he fell to his knees.

Needless to say that Ren felt absolutely terrible for what he had just done to the kid, the child was a mess, a crying mess!

“Hayato, shhh, calm down, Hayato please!” probably continuing to shout at the kid wasn’t really the best idea … not that Ren would actually know that since he wasn’t accustomed to taking care of children anymore … or so he thought.

“There there” he hugged the child in a slow and caring manner “Please don’t cry … I’m really sorry Hayato” the child sobbed, trying to stop or slow down his crying but to no use.

“Hayato …” he ran a hand on the child’s head “I’m sorry, please don’t cry anymore”

“I-I’m … I’m s-sorry … but I want P-Papa …”

The other hugged him harder “We’ll get to him soon, don’t you worry … Now halt your tears, you’re strong aren’t you?” he gave a taunt at the end to push the child to stop crying.

The other was quick to wipe his eyes and force the tears to – at the very least – slow down.

“Good boy, now, we need to move before the bad people get to us” gosh he felt like an old man when he said that …

With that the two got up and quickly went down the remaining stairs before the rotted wood would go out. Ren wasn’t really smart, in fact he was pretty stupid when the topic wasn’t really somewhat involved with his Talent, but he did try to understand other things.

For example, though it was stupidly hard for him to be able to learn other things he was pretty sure that the building was going to give out if more weight were to be added to it.

Each step got them a squeak from the old wood so Ren almost one hundred percent sure.

 

* * *

 

 

With that in mind it didn’t take long for the two to leave the building

The sight was as unpleasant as it had been so far, streets had an awful smell, corpses lingered on the street, the street itself was stained with blood. The two weren’t clear from danger, not one bit. The noise had surely attracted the ruffians that were in control of the city.

A small hand quickly grabbed Ren’s hand.

“Hm?”

“I … I’m not af-fraid or something … m-my left hand f-feels cold”

“Ah, got it” Hayato was clearly afraid, and Ren knew far too well that he would gain absolutely nothing on teasing the child who had been barely hanging by a string just a few moments ago “Let’s go”

Ren led Hayato through the street, the more corpses were near them the closer Hayato would get to him and use Ren’s body to shield his face from looking at the horrifying corpses.

There was no way Ren could blame him, he was but a kid, and this was too much, even for Ren it was far too much, but after living almost his entire life with someone like Kokichi he came to learn how to control some expressions.

However, that didn’t mean it was any easy, it was hard to do, it was so hard to keep back the memories. Each glimpse at the corpses was a terrible reminder of how things came to an end in the city, a reminder of the terrible genocide that had gone down.

… He still remembered it … he remembered it well …

 

* * *

 

 

“Ren-chan~” the mischievous voice of his Leader called out.

“Leader … what is it?”

A pale skinned boy with purple hair stood near the doorframe of the room they were sharing “It’s so happy to be with you again Ren-chan~!”

“Ah, I’m gla-“

“Nishishi, just kidding, you’re the one who should be glad for being in my presence”

_Ah … I missed the way he joked …_

“Oh I am Leader, but … isn’t there a small part of you that is somewhat glad to have found your second in command?”

Kokichi had a stunned look on his face, clearly taken aback by the comment, but the look disappeared as fast as it came being replaced by his trademark grin.

“Nishishi, you seem to have grown somewhat rebellious, haven’t you Ren-chan?”

“Not at all Leader, just stronger”

Happy with their little game Kokichi sighed and showed a genuine smile “I am really happy you’re alive, better yet that we managed to reach this community after …” Ren knew … he knew far too well what Kokichi was trying to get to …

“I understand Leader … I am happy too”

“… However …”

That caught Ren’s attention “However?” he pressed on.

“Something smells fishy here, the army is packing their stuff so damn quick and a significant number of people have been disappearing, and what concerns me is that those who are disappearing aren’t really nice …”

Ren … wasn’t smart … for the intelligence factor for an Ultimate he was barely average … Ren knew he wasn’t very smart and that the words dumb or stupid could very well apply to him … however, he wasn’t entirely stupid or dumb, he was smart enough to make his own decision or even read a person, he had learned that much from being around Kokichi and right now, Ren could tell that if he hadn’t met Kokichi he wouldn’t have been able to smell the bullshit that was on the city right now.

“There’s some bullshit going on, right?”

Kokichi fake cried “T-They grow up so fast …” “Oi!” the two laughed again as the great friends they wer- No! They were family at this point.

Sadly the rare and small moment of shared happiness was cut short the moment they heard the alarm go off. They rushed to the window and saw the army evacuating people, screams and shouts of terror coming from different areas of the town.

“P-Please h-help” a man limped towards an army man, his shirt painted with bloo- … Ren had seen blood before and they were two kinds of blood, fresh blood of a living person and corpse blood … that was corpse blood.

“Sir, please stay calm and evacua-“ the supposedly wounded guy pulled out a pistol and shot the guy on the head, killing him and preventing him from coming back.

A small group of children and women who saw that screamed and attempted to fear, but the man, wearing a maniac look chased them an began shooting at them.

“What the fuck …”

“Couldn’t agree more Ren-chan …”

If that wasn’t bad enough they saw another group of men leading walkers on the streets, using the dead as weapons against those who were living in the city.

“You still have your weapons?”

“Of course … You?”

“Yes but not my briefcase” That was problematic, they needed that briefcase, and they had NO they must get it back.

Both of them ducked when the group of savages began looking up, trying to look for more victims.

Kokichi and Ren locked eyes and shared a mental talk.

_“Find a hideout?”_

_“Find a hideout”_

 

* * *

 

 

A tug on his sleeve brought him back to reality “Yes Hayato?”

“Can you … tell me what is in the path that Papa took” Ren would have preferred if they could have avoid that topic … plus the fact he was awful at getting a debate to go his way only proved that it was pointless to try and hide from the Child Prodigy what was down that path … he could however say it without saying it.

“The path that Shu-kun took is both much easier to traverse yet much dea-… difficult … I believe, despite his bad performance so far, that he is indeed capable of traversing it”

The child let out a soft, almost inaudible sigh of relief.

Ren stopped, Hayato bumping into him in the process “Mi- … Ren-kun what’s wrong?”

The only response he got was Ren sniffing the air before turning back to him and drag him into an alleyway to hide behind a large waste container.

“Hayato, stay quiet” he nodded fast, his grip on Ren’s hand growing tighter. The poor child was trembling under Hayato’s touch, he had no idea of what was to come but he believed that Ren would joke around at a time like that.

The clear street that held absolutely no signs of life suddenly got filled with armed people … it was needless to say that those were part of the ruffians that currently controlled the city.

“God fucking DAMMIT!” the one leading the group shouted “I could be on my room eating my goddamn lunch and have my SO WELL DESERVED REST TIME, BUT YOU FUCKERS HAD TO LEAVE YOUR POSITIONS AND LET TRAVELERS IN THE CITY!”

“I’m sorry sir” a guy to his left apologized.

“It won’t happen again sir” the one to his right assured him.

“YOU BETTER YOU GODDMAN TWINS OR ELSE IM CUTTING OFF YOUR DAMN GENITALS” the twins went pale and grew quiet.

“Calm yourself Charles, they had to eat, besides we control this city, they can only be on the eastern or western areas of the city, if they are here we’ll get them, if they are on the west then She will get them” a scary looking woman calmed them down. At the mention of this _she_ most of them seemed to have grown quite afraid.

 

From where they were watching they couldn’t really see much but that also meant the others couldn’t see them tha-

Something began rustling from the dark alleyway, Hayato turned his head and “Hiiiii-mmph” Ren’s hand harshly covered Hayato’s mouth.

 

“Don’t get me started on her” one of the twins shivered “When Miss Murder is around my balls try to climb back inside my body”

“Bro, your balls are already in your body”

“Shh! Did you guys heard anything?” the woman looked around, trying to find the source of the sound she _believed_ to have heard.

 

Hayato’s body shivered with fear as he tried his best to break free from Ren who was still much focused on the other two.

The child looked back to the alleyway and the zombie crawled closer to him, this time he could see it much better and it had its entire lower half gone, guts dragging on the floor as it dragged its body closer and closer to Hayato.

Its hands fell on Hayato’s body and it lunged to the child only to get a knife in the middle of the head. Ren killed the being before it could even scratch or bit Hayato.

Ren was really strong, he wasn’t affected by the situation. Hayato on the other hand got the short stick, he had a rotting zombie looking down on him, its glossy white dead eyes looking deep on Hayato’s soul, its jaw hanging and blood running down its face.

 

“They are in a sack, not _inside_ ”

“Whatever …”

“Boys!” they all went quiet, allowing the female to search properly for the sound “… It was probably my imagination … Shit, the lack of sleep is getting to me, let’s go, we need find them, after that we’ll discuss whose balls go inside whose body”

 

With that they ceased talking and continued to move down the street. Thankfully for them they weren’t found.

After what seemed like forever Ren led Hayato out of the alleyway and sighed “Okay, Haya-chan we gotta keep goin- Haya-chan?”

The silent child grabbed Ren’s hard tightly, he had a terrified look on his face, a pale sickly look … _Oh_

Hu turned back to look at where they came from and the picture formed on his head.

_Ooohh … shit_

“Hayato-chan are you okay?” the child was shivering, his legs barely able to keep him from falling down.

Hayato failed once again to emote or speak at all for a while until he finally said something “P-Papa …” even now when he was struck with so much fear all he wanted was to be reunited with Shuichi

The kid looked at his hands and slapped his cheeks twice “Mister Ren we have to find Papa before them or that woman, I won’t let them have Papa!” the fearless look on his face was … a surprise to say the least.

“Kid you are full of surprises, I didn’t expect the sudden bravery”

“T-Thank you … but I would rather get to Papa instead of wasting time” … ouch … getting told by a kid was harsh …

 

* * *

 

 

The two were once again on the move, this time however with a different yet similar goal, to join back with Shuichi and make sure there were no casualties on their end.

Thankfully Lady Luck seemed to have taken pity on them and allowed them to be blessed by fortune as they failed to find any other human being in their path, wherever they would look they would see buildings, overgrowing plants, dead corpses that were actually dead and decomposing, used bullets on the floor, blood trails, not the usual one would see in a city but … the usual one would see in a city post apocalypse.

Hayato seemed to draw his look away from scenes that were a bit more on the brutal side, those being the abused corpses, it was simply normal for him to do so, he was still a child.

After a long time of walking they reached a building and Ren wasted no time in entering, claiming that said building was a connection point between the eastern and western sides of the city that the group had divided into.

Of course that said place held quite a lot of importance, not only to them but also to the group that was living in the city, therefore the place was seen as more of an outpost in the city. By that logic the possibility of there being people in there suddenly spiked up, but that was when Ren, instead of going deeper into the building, entered a door that lead them somewhere else entirely.

“Um … Ren-kun …”

“Yes Haya-chan?”

“Shouldn’t we be going the other way?”

Ren was somewhat surprised that Hayato already had a small idea of a blueprint in his head.

“Yes … however this path, although a bit tighter to traverse … and also longer, should be safer”

Having no reason to doubt the other, Hayato quietly obeyed and followed Ren down the hallway until they reached a new hallway filled with iron cabinets … a blockade of some sorts against intruders?? Maybe a way to slow down the victims they were chasing?? Either case it was a bad and stupid use of said cabinets.

“This way …” Ren, once again wasting no time to go ahead, began moving away some cabinets with his body in order to make a clearer path for Hayato. Ren also seemed to have forgotten that Hayato’s body was much smaller than his own.

Eventually the duo had successfully passed the “Labyrinth of Cabinets” Hayato labeled it, and proceeded onwards, deeper into the dark building.

“We need to go up this stairs, then it should be smooth sailing … not sailing because we’re not in a boat but sail-“

“I understood the expression”

“Oh …” Ren seemed to forget that Hayato was smarter than most kids “Well” he began while climbing up the stairs “Why don’t you tell me more about yourself, I know very little about you and the fact that you know Livin La Vida Loca was surprising to me”

“That’s reasonable, I haven’t really spoken much to you after our first meetings …” he shrugged a bit after realizing how mean he sounded without actually meaning it.

“So … how about telling me about what you know about combat, I noticed that you didn’t hesitate to kill the zombie that attacked Shuichi but you weren’t under the adrenaline of the situation” a topic that had been bugging Ren for quite a while.

“For that we have to thank Mister Rantaro, not only did he taught me how to use a weapon but he also taught me how not to be afraid of them … yet there are times I still get afraid … when I saw Papa almost getting killed I was so afraid … if I were to lose Papa I … I don’t know what would I do if that were to happen”

Ren felt a chill running down his body when he heard that last part.

Hayato seems to hold Shuichi in a very bright light and if he were to lose him the child could have a mental breakdown or … he could snap …

Knowing that, Ren took it upon himself to prevent that outcome.

He smiled and patted the child’s head “And yet you took the shot like a champ, you didn’t let your fear stop you!” Hayato chuckled, a weak blush showing on his cheeks

“Well …” the child began “It was something that anyone can do so-“

“No no no, it’s not!” Ren stopped him “Shuichi has a very hard time killing zombies … I’m going to assume it’s the same for humans … you however don’t have an issue when it comes fighting the dead …”

“It’s merciful”

“Huh?” what did Hayato meant with that?

“I believe that it’s something so … sinful to force the ones that have already died to stand up again and … be forced to … just do anything, the dead should be at rest, that’s why I can make them rest with ease” so that was his mindset, that’s how he keeps the fear away.

“What if they were humans?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“… I don’t believe that me or you or anyone should decide when someone else dies, that’s why I … I don’t want to kill anyone …” that was to be expected of a child “However” Ren stopped “These people have been doing that … they’ve done that many times … and far worse … these people … I don’t like thinking this way but I think that they don’t deserve being alive anymore … not after all the lives that they took. I might’ve looked away but … those corpses weren’t done by zombies … were they …”

“…” this kid … was incredible, in a way he reminded Ren of a young version of Kokichi … without the tragic past that turned him into the closed individual he had become “… that’s … in a way quite mature of you … and in full honesty quite right … I know this doesn’t mean much coming from me but I am proud of how strong and how big your heart is Haya-chan”

Hayato looked away, his face visibly pink of embarrassment.

“Look, we’re here” Ren unlocked the door and slowly opened it.

“So we have to find thos- Oh Shit” Ren grabbed his gun and shot the guy who had just talked.

The suddenness of the situation caused him to grow distracted for a fraction of seconds and getting a gun to the head.

“Drop the weapon scumbag … that was my friend!”

“…” Ren … was stupid, Ren wasn’t smart … but even he knew that it was impossible to win now, a marksman needs terrain in order to shine, terrain that he did not have.

“Drop it! Do you want to die you piece of sh-“

*bang*

The guy fell to the floor, a bullet wound on his head, blood flowing from the wound as water from a waterfall.

Following the trail from where the bullet had come from he saw none other than Hayato with his pistol in hand.

“H-Hayato …” the child flinched and looked at him “… Good job” the child failed to emote at all, his empty eyes moved from Ren to the one he had just killed.

“I killed him … in cold blood … he’s a murderer who has killed many people … Mister Ren … Am I … does this make me a killer … am I a monster?” the insecurity in his voice had risen far too quickly, Ren could feel that Hayato wasn’t happy for killing someone, their previous discussion was proof enough that the kid had the will to do so but … it was possible that he would be haunted by his actions.

“No, there is a thing called killing for sport and killing to protect, what you did was the second one … let’s get out of here, you of all people shouldn’t see this”

After getting the ammo that the two guys had Ren grabbed Hayato’s hand and began walking down the hallway to find the path they need to take.

Ren felt like he had failed, the fact he was being so distracted almost got them killed … he had to fix that.

 

* * *

 

 

After a while they reached what seemed to have been an hotel kitchen, a place that was familiar to Ren, a place that he and Leader had used to traverse quite a few times already, they were almost caught last time they used it but managed to escape.

As usual, he didn’t waste time going for the one door that would lead them both to the side of the city Shuichi was currently on. None of them knew how Shuichi was faring but Ren hoped he was doing well, he couldn’t handle seeing the broken look on Hayato’s face.

Hayato, unlike Ren, was taking to view his surroundings, he was always amazed by the art of cooking and a kitchen this big and large was a first for him. Although the place looked dirty, a mess and totally raided it was still impressive … to the child at least.

“Psst!” Ren called from the door “Let’s get a move on”

Something felt off, things were being … rather easy … too easy, especially on a crucial point to the bandits that were controlling the city, an outpost, one would call it.

Never had his gut feeling or his nose betrayed Ren, not once, but yet he wasn’t sure what was it that felt so wrong … could it be that there were people hidden on the corridor he and Hayato were about to go through?

His nose told him that it was safe, his gut told him that there was danger and his eyes showed an empty hallway and no possible hiding spots for anyone to ambush them … yet why was there the hesitation present?

One look to the kitchen and the child was still taking his time. Eyes sparkling as he took into view the few things that were in the kitchen, a cute and somehow hopeful sight, something that wasn’t common these days, something that Ren had believed to had died the day the world had fallen to the dead.

Turning his back to Hayato he went slightly further into the corridor just to check things out.

One step … he felt nothing.

Two steps … he didn’t hear anyone but he knew someone or something was close.

At the third step however he felt something tugging at his feet “Huh?” there was some wire, almost invisible to the human eye, the wire was oddly placed, almost like a tra-…

His body went cold

He turned quickly, his eyes getting a glimpse of the child “HAYAT-“ was what he managed to get out before the heavy steel doors closed, separating him from Hayato.

“R-Ren-kun!” knowing now that he and Ren weren’t together in the same room he ran to the door and tried his best to open it but to no avail, the door was far too heavy and the lock was on.

From the other side Ren had attempted to open it many times but failed just like Hayato, he began to ram the door on a hopeless attempt to get it to open but once again to no avail.

“We got them now!” cheers and laughter came echoing from the corridor Ren was at, he was right, the place was a trap and like a damned idiot he made the trap ten times better by leaving Hayato on his own.

“Hayato! If you can hear me, Run! Run and find a place to hide now!” with that said, Ren grabbed his gun and ran down the hallway, ready to kill anyone and anything that stood on his way.

Ren could only hope that Hayato would be okay ... and that Shuichi was doing better than he was.

 

* * *

 

 

On the other side of the door, things weren’t going really well.

Now that he had been left alone by both his father and the one person he could rely on to keep him safe, Hayato felt himself breaking down.

He was alone, all alone in a city full of bad and awful people.

His body was shaking, his breath was ragged, his mind was ceasing to work with him.

The plushy that he had was hugged even tighter in an attempt to calm himself, to lower the fear he had, but it didn’t work.

The tears he had been doing so well to keep back had attacked full force and were now running down his face.

And finally, his eyes, he couldn’t move, he was just looking at the door, the cold heavy door, no sounds, no movement, no nothing came from the door. The world simply had moments were it would black out and remain hazy as he would blink and the tears would fall.

“P-Papa …” he whispered

“M-Mister Amami … Miss Ak-Aka-Akamatsu … H-H-Help me … so-someone … I … I do-don’t want t-t-t-o be a-alone …” he shut his eyes.

All of this was a bad dream, a nightmare, if he kept his eyes closed and wished really hard he would wake up. The sky would be dark, his father would be next to him in bed, the bed was going to be warm … he was safe.

He was safe, there was no harm.

He was safe, there was no fear.

He was safe, there were people that cared for him.

He was safe, his father would protect him.

He was safe … because … all of this … could only be an awful dream.

…

 

In the end …

 

 

 

 

 

He was not safe.

 

 

There was a door that was opened, Hayato heard it open and instinctively looked at where the sound came from.

“Well well, look at what I found” Hayato got up and began to back away.

At the door there was a guy that was looking at him the same way a predator looks at his prey.

“I just found myself a cute new toy to play with” he licked his lips and moved dangerously fast towards Hayato.

The child attempted to reach for his gun but the moment he pointed it the guy hit his hands sending the gun to the other side of the room.

“You’re a naughty boy, pulling out such a dangerous toy”

“L-… Le-Leave me alone!” he tried to run but that wasn’t really possible when he was held by his wrist and then throw to the ground.

The older man turned him so that Hayato was looking upwards.

He shrieked when he saw the man pulling out a knife.

“If you don’t do anything rash this toy won’t hurt you” his words, his grin … everything about him felt so overwhelming, in a totally horrible and bad way.

The knife cut with ease the buttons from Hayato’s shirt allowing the man to open it and let his hand run on the child’s torso “N-N-No s-s-stop”

“Ahhhh” he sighed “I haven’t felt the soft skin of a child in such a long time” he grinned again.

At this point he no longer had the knife in his hands and Hayato began to struggle to break free, but he was too small and weak compared to the adult that was on top of him.

His tongue ran on Hayato’s chest, belly and on his nipples, sending a wave of disgust across the child “S-Stop! N-Nooo!” he hit the man on the face with the hand the man wasn’t holding any longer.

“Do you know what happens to bad children?” he grabbed the knife and let the blind side of the blade rest at Hayato’s neck “They get punished” with his free hand he punched the child on the stomach and applied strength on the knife.

“AHHH” he screamed in pain both from the punch and from the blade at his neck making it hard to breathing.

Upon hearing the cries of pain he withdrew the knife and ran one hand on the child’s torso while the other hand restrained both of Hayato’s hands above him, making it impossible for Hayato to physically deny what he was about to do.

“You’re useless” the man began “All you’re good off is to please others”

He connected his mouth to the child’s and forced him to part his lips open to let his tongue in and explore.

Hayato felt even more disgusted with what the man was currently doing to him, he didn’t want this, he didn’t want this man to touch him, he … he …

Gathering up his strength and all his courage he did something the he had never thought he would be doing.

“Gahhh!” with all his strength he bit the other’s tongue, causing the man to let go of Hayato.

Knowing how bad that man was he tried to get up and reach for his gun, however, the man grabbed his feet and forced him to the ground again.

“You bastard … my tongue is bleeding!” being small and skinny as he was made it easy for the guy to pick him up and throw him to the other side of the room.

As he fell his head hit on the sharp side of one of the ovens and then on the floor.

Everything began to hurt, his will to be awake faded and his mind started going blank

“You’re gonna pay now!” Hayato couldn’t move, he could barely keep his eyes open, under his head he felt a warmness seeping.

_“Haha, you’re really adventurous, just like me! Remember, to always be kind little one”_

“Mister Amami …” he whispered, the pain beginning to take over.

_“Hayato, do you like the sound of the piano? ... You're so sweet! Aw, I love you much more than anything in the world”_

“… Miss Akamatsu …” a warm liquid was slowly seeping out underneath Hayato’s head.

Second by second he felt himself dowsing off.

An image of Shuichi appeared in his mind and finally, the child broke “P … P-pa … Papa …” his tears joined the warmed liquid underneath him as the other approached him.

Hayato did not want to believe what was to come but … he was sure he was going to join Miss Akamatsu and Mister Amami.

His vision had grown blurry, all he could see was a blob almost on him.

“You piece of shit, I’m going to make yo- huh?” the blob turned around and a sound followed, what it was Hayato didn’t know as his earing was also fading.

A new blob showed up. A short looking person wearing mostly black, skin seeming quite pale??? Hayato could only tell this person seemed to have long hair as he stopped telling colors, his senses starting to fail or leave him.

What seemed to be a hand was extended to the fallen child, a mercy that the one giving didn’t expect to provide to the unknown ones in this sinful city.

The child attempted to grab said hand. His hand fell limp to the floor as he passed out in front of the stranger.


	8. City of the dead 1/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having but one option, Shuichi follows the somewhat easy command from Ren, but it quickly becomes something that Shuichi wasn't that prepared for.

When Shuichi had heard the worry on Ren’s voice he had immediately assumed that whatever was in the hallway he was it wasn’t pretty … or good in any shape or form.

… That on its own was, in matter of fact, a really _really_ big understatement.

The walls and flooring was totally different from the previous ones. The place seemed sturdier, much darker and smelled absolutely awful, Shuichi couldn’t even guess what the smell was, a mix of blood, dead bodies, rotting corpses, rotting food, moss and innumerous amounts of absolute filth.

The poor detective had to wear a cloth, covering his nose and mouth to just be able to breathe without almost puking all over himself.

Right now however … It was much worse.

Although it was dark, the only light being the one that entered through the openings in between boarded windows, there was also tin some of the corridors these weird yellow-ish plants.

Plants weren’t weird, not at all … what was, in fact, weird was that the plants were sprouting from a body that wasn’t even on the process of decomposition yet, the arteries and veins of said body were now replaced by roots and vines from said plant, who were into the person’s body and at some areas sprouting out of the skin just to pierce it again on some other part of the person’s body.

The corpse’s head turned to Shuichi causing the sleuth to go silent “P-Pl-Please …” How cruel, the person wasn’t dead but didn’t seem to be in a point of salvation “K-… *cough*” the person coughed, a green liquid coming from his mouth … just like … _blood_.

A second quick examination to the body and Shuichi could see that the person had, most likely, been in a situation somewhat similar to his own and ended up injuring himself on the plant that was growing on the decrepit building.

Like a person falling on a bed of wooden twigs and one of them entering the body.

If it were a case like that then why the hell was the plant growing all over this person’s body, plants didn’t do that, plant didn- … a scary thought crossed Shuichi’s mind.

Ren avoided calling the dead as zombies when they were clearly zombies, he called them infected, and could it be that this plant was one of the organisms affected by the virus that made the world what it is today?

If not even plants were safe from whatever virus made the world so ... so fucked up then what were the chances of there even being something or even somewhat that could be immune, what were even the chances of there to be a cure, what were even the chances of the world ever getting fixed.

… Shuichi hated thinking too much about things like this because he knew he would start to despair over things … but in that situation who wouldn’t?

Heck, he didn’t need to be a genius to know that the odds of the world ever going back to normal were low, probably lower than the two digit percentage.

“… Please” the person spoke once again “I … I don’t wan… go like th… put me to sle…” the guy could barely speak properly.

Shuichi kneeled next to him, once again his eyes roaming on the man’s body, seeing the sick color that made him go nauseous.

“You a ne… member… ?”

_New member …?_

 

C-Could this guy be one of those barbarians in control of the city? … WHY was he here, shouldn’t this path be safe??

“… Doesn… matter … kill m-*cough*” he started coughing again, this time harder and stronger than before.

As he coughed he made sounds of drowning, more of that disgusting green liquid came out of his mouth until he kept on gasping, mouth open as far as it could.

The back of the guy’s throat entirely visible. There were some weird moving lumps that kept on twitching until they blew revealing moving roots that began to spread alongside the guy’s mouth.

Needless to say that behind the mask – the piece of cloth that Shuichi was calling a mask – was a jaw hanging open. The sight much more horrible then a few seconds ago, Shuichi couldn’t help but wanting to run away from it all, just find somewhere secluded and hide there until his life came to an end.

“P-Ple-pluueesuu” the roots began to tangle his tongue making it harder to speak.

Despite the fear of the sight in front of him and from the fact that said man was part of the ones that were hunting, Shuichi couldn’t help but to feel some pity towards him.

After what Shuichi had seen and after what Ren had told him there was no denying that this person was awful, just like the rest of the people in the town … yet, this was too cruel and too sick, even for someone that could be called a monster.

Shuichi pulled out his knife and held the tip near to the man’s forehead, a weak smile on the person’s face.

Hands began to tremble as the situation began to settle in. Shuichi was going to deliberately kill someone … well, he was going to kill someone again but the last time it was different, he knew Rantaro, he was a kind person not a monster, he didn’t deserve to turn into a zombie and so he didn’t.

This person however … was he worthy of that mercy?

On the arms of said person, these buds(?) sprouted into these weird flowers letting out some weird pollen … Shuichi didn’t paid much attention to that and focused again on the person.

…

“I’m sorry …”

With closed eyes he got up, and walked away from the person.

For the very first time Shuichi grew deft to the cries and pleas of someone.

It was the right thing to do, right?? He deserved this pain … right?? A bastard like that should have a long painful death, he should suffer in quiet knowing his end would come and he would become a monster, a mindless monster that was going to get killed by someone one day into the future, while Shuichi would just laugh at his stupidity and mediocre-

“W-What N-No!” he said half shouting to get those sadistic thoughts out of his head.

Shuichi turned around took a deep breath and approached the person again, this time, to put him out of his misery. The sooner he did it the sooner he could move on and rejoin with Hayato and Ren.

One hand went to grip his head, an annoying sharp pain shooting from nowhere but quickly began to subside.

Once he felt better he pulled out the blade was out again he took another deep breath, swung the blade an-

“Papa!” the knife stopped right before hitting the other.

At the end of the hallway next to the door was none other than a smiling Hayato.

“Nu… weeeeuull … nuuu weliiiwe …” the man spoke but Shuichi couldn’t make out anything he was saying.

“I’ll be with you in a second Hayato … let me put him out of his misery first”

“Huh? What are you talking about Papa?” the low ominous tone on Hayato’s voice was an odd change, Shuichi looked at him again and … he was scared shitless at the psychotic look on his eyes and the large grin “That rapist fucker should just that, that pussy should feel his body getting torn apart, let that fuck get it, he deserves it … besides … it will be so beautiful seeing him torn apart, just thinking about it I … hihihi” the child cackled in delight.

“H-Hayato! How can you say that! And where did you learn to swear!” Shuichi had always been very careful around swearing around people, even more now that he was in charge of taking care of a child.

“Who gives a fuck?” he responded in such a monotone voice. He then gave a twirl and went down the hallway.

“H-Hayato, hey Hayato! Wait up!” the child did no such thing, simply continuing to move as if Shuichi’s voice did not exist.

A quick glance to the person and they seemed to have passed out … with regret on the back of his head Shuichi sped up on the direction that Hayato went to.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hayato! Hayato, where are you?!” Shuichi’s voice echoed on the empty building, the hallways dark and with the same pollen from the flowers(?) from the guy’s body.

“Hihihi, you’re getting closer Paaaaapaaaaa, haha” the voice of the child was so clear, sounding so close but Shuichi couldn’t see him anywhere near him.

The sleuth continued to move forward, his attention never directed to the large amount of dead bodies he passed by or walked over, all he was looking for was for something that moved, Hayato.

As he went on he did notice most doors impossible to open, be them locked or blocked from one side.

Shuichi didn’t care, all he wanted was Hayato, he wanted Hayato, he wanted him … wanted him … wantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwantedhimwante-

“Ugh” he fell to one knee, his hands gripping his head “… What’s … going on …?”

“Tooo fuckin slow!” Hayato showed up from behind him, but that was impossible, there was nothing for him to hide on, and his voice clearly came from someplace deeper in.

His small hand grabbed Shuichi’s chin and pulled his head up “You know Papa … I like you … I like Papa so much … I want you Papa, I need you Papa … be mine and only mine Papa” with that he pulled down the piece of cloth that Shuichi had tied around his face “… I love Papa, I love Papa’s face, I love everything about Papa”

… This … this wasn’t like Hayato at all, that wasn’t like him, Hayato didn’t know how to speak like this and he couldn’t be having such feelings, not at that age … besides Shuichi didn’t have a thing for kids, he wasn’t a pedophile, and this kid was like a son to him.

Gathering his strength, Shuichi pushed Hayato away from him and held him to the wall. The child’s chest was hard almost, if not, as hard as the wall.

“Hayato! What is going on with you, this isn’t like you! What’s going on, where is Ren, what is going on!” was he losing it?? Was Shuichi losing his mind already?

“Ren! Renny! Renny-boy! Ren-chan! I left him behind, too stupid and slow, hihihi” the child laughed, something was wrong, very wrong with the child.

His voice, then, immediately changed into a more high pitched and squeaky voice “Hayato-chan is tired of being the cute and compliant child” voice slowly changing into something much more deeper and filled with need “Hayato-chan wants Papa to see Hayato-chan’s naughty side, Hayato-chan wants Papa to defile him, Hayato-chan looooves Papa, hihihi…”

The sudden confession stunned Shuichi, Hayato had always seemed like he always wanted to be around Shuichi … but never had the child showed signs of this.

When Shuichi came back to himself Hayato was once again gone, he had not even noticed the child leave.

A quick glance at the hallway and yes, Hayato had vanished again.

Although the hallways were empty there were still some sounds, groans, only groans. A trick that Ren had told him was that walkers groaned and gave shout like groans, runners had more distinctive shouts, in other words, there walkers in the building, which the idea alone was pretty believable seeing the awful condition of the place he was in.

Just how the fuck had he missed the bodies that he passed by?? Shuichi didn’t see any, only a path clear of corpses.

Whatever was the reason Shuichi didn’t care as of right now, he was just glad that he was fortunate enough for the floor to be really squeaky on the hallway as it allowed him to know that the walkers seemed to be coming closer.

“Hihihi, let’s go Paaapaaa, hihihi” … if Shuichi didn’t know Hayato – which it seemed like he didn’t with this knew personality of his – he would be terrified at how creepy he sounded for a child.

A child.

Hayato was still a growing child, with that in mind there was no way he was letting him by himself, Shuichi made a promise to keep him safe and … he enjoyed the child, he liked him very much, a part of Shuichi even had trouble seeing him as someone else’s son, that part of Shuichi saw him as his own child.

That feeling … that weird warm feeling … _damn_ he felt old, but in a good way??

Shuichi liked being Hayato’s “father” even if it was a lie, even if Hayato migh come to hate him one day when he finds out, even if their father/son bond was just a façade … Shuichi loved that child.

He loved him, he loved him, he loved him heloved him helovedhimhelovedhimhelovedhimhelovedhimhelovedhi-

“GAH!” there was barely anytime to hold against the wall as his body threatened to fail him.

The recurring thoughts that also came to mind about the child were preoccupying, terrifying even, it was almost like an unhealthy obsession, almost like …

A shiver ran through his body when he realized that he realized he sounded just like the people that currently inhabited the city. The realization made him feel disgusted with himself.

Groans echoed on the hallway, the dead closer than what they were before.

Shuichi had only but to quickly search for a place to hide or escape to. Thankfully for him a door remained open and after a quick check to the lock it seemed to be in okay-ish condition???

With the dead approaching he couldn’t be selfish with time, he closed the door and locked the lock.

The satisfying click got a sigh of relief to escape him.

Sadly Shuichi didn’t have time to enjoy it seeing that he began panicking once he realized he entered a room without checking inside.

With a quick turn of his body he was met with the sight of a room with furniture, most broken and rotting and the ones that weren’t broken were rotting as well, dust had settled in the entire room for the lack of cleaning or usage. He walked forward, examining the room with his eyesight.

The double door at the back did not seemed to be sturdy at all so picking it open or just breaking the door down was an option!

Thinking back, the door Shuichi had just taken was the only one that was open. Hayato must’ve come this way … is what he wanted to believe.

There were no signs of the child passing the room, no footprints on the dust, the door at the back also had no signs of being used anytime soon.

“… Hayato …” Shuichi called out to him, his hope starting to fade, the child must still be outside … out there with the dead …

Determined to find him he turned back to the door he had just taken and the world began spinning.

Losing all control of his body Shuichi fell backwards, body weak and tired. Another sharp pain came from his head, hands instinctively trying to reach upwards but failed to do so.

“Calm down Papa”

“H-Hayato?” the child had showed up - once again out of nowhere - relief washing over Shuichi seeing the child safe.

With a goofy smile on his face he laid down on top of Shuichi, his face and Shuichi’s very close to each other.

“W-What’re you doing?”

A hand caressed Shuichi’s cheek “I want Papa … and only Papa … Papa is so tired, isn’t he, aren’t you Papa?”

Shuichi’s eyelids were growing heavy, threatening to close.

“It’s okay Papa … just let yourself go” with that he rested his lips on Shuichi’s.

If the older male had the strength to keep his eyes open or just push the child away he would, but he didn’t have the strength.

One concerning though popped on his mind before his fully closed.

 

_I can’t feel him_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those wondering why this chapter doesn't really makes sense with the last one worry not as that will be explained on "City of the dead 2/2", however, I did drop a few clues as of what is happening with Shuichi.


	9. A Young Heart Forever Wandering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, sorry for the wait, I'm sad to say that due to my job I've gotten pretty busy and can't update much, it will be amazing if I can get an update per month and that on best case scenario, but I will do my best to put work in the story every time I can.  
> Once again I apologize for the huge wait.

“Man, I’m fucking bored, there’s no one in here …” said a guy with a pistol.

“Shut the hell up Lee, we have a job to do, now keep searching the place, the group saw something move and us being on an advanced outpost we gotta keep these things checked up” with his bat he broke down a shelf allowing him to move to the next aisle.

“Jesus, this pharmacy still has things in the back!” another guy with a low voice said from the backroom “Antidepressants, painkillers, bandages, how the fuck did we mis-“ he stopped midsentence.

“Cain?” the man named Lee called out for him and received no response.

“… Hey Carlos, I’m worried, he isn’t responding … Carlos?” he looked around and Carlos was nowhere to be seen “… Oh Ha Ha, very funny guys, now come out and help me out”

The pharmacy remained quiet, the only noise being of his breathing and the one of the air coming into said store.

“Hey guys, I think I’ll need help in here!” he called out to the outside but once again there was no response “Guys?” now a bit more worried he turned his attention to the door.

Hearing nothing and seeing nothing but the orange light of the sunrise entering the door he saw no other choice but to exit and check his friends.

“What the fuck …” he backed away once he reached the exterior.

Two dead bodies lied in front of him, still with color and bleeding. The fear that had been slowly creeping before was now much stronger and it only became much stronger when the clear sound of footsteps came from behind him, from within the pharmacy.

Seeing his friends on the floor dead like that he knew it wasn’t a zombie’s doing, someone was there with them and he could only assume he was the last one alive.

There was no running, his legs wouldn’t move, if he were to turn around he would clearly die easily, whoever was there clearly had the upper hand … or so that person would think.

Knowing well the possibility his hand went for his walkie talkie and quickly pressed the button “THE PHARMACY, THE PHA-“ he was cut out by a bat hitting him on the side, right on the walkie talkie and sending him to the floor.

“Thanks, I needed them to come here”

He locked eyes with his assaulter and could not believe his eyes.

“Y-You … how are you alive, I- WE saw you die! H-How the fuck is this possible, HOW are you alive!”

A gun was aimed to his head.

“Did I really? Or are you all going mad?” not wishing to allow the man any more time to think he pressed the trigger, killing the man. Blood seeped from the body and fell to the floor, slowly forming a pool of crimson under the body.

Turning around with a flourish he hastily returned to the pharmacy and went to the back room, two more recent bodies there, the companions of the other three outside.

Monsters with human skin, that was what they were, monsters.

All of them were worthless, pathetic, not worth his time, creatures that simply deserved the worst of punishments ever known. Sadly he did not had the time, means, luxury to do so and to be bluntly honest – something that he normally was not – he couldn’t see himself giving two fucks about any of those bastards.

Still in a hurry he picked up a bag filled with the medical supplies that they had missed to take from the pharmacy when the place had first been pillaged.

As he walked to leave he found his body stopping “… disgusting bastards … humanity has fallen to a new kind of low” he dropped his bat and reached for an opening in the wall.

An inconspicuous small opening, just like the many others, this one however contained his weapon of choice, a weird looking axe.

With the medical supplies and weapon in hand there was no time wasted to leave the pharmacy and quickly start making his way down the street.

 

* * *

 

 

Heavy Armored vehicles were making their way towards the pharmacy after being tipped off that something was going down at the medical store.

For some a problem having enemies coming down the same path one would take, for him however it was the opposite, hiding from fools like those was easy and besides he needed them to clear from where he actually needed to go.

Going through buildings and waiting out for the streets to have openings on their forces was super easy, not problematic at all, if by any odd chance they did manage to spot him it’s not like they can actually KILL him, they failed the first time, eighteen automatics were all aimed at him and he still is alive.

Eventually he finally reached his destination, a skyscraper.

In every scenario that could be seen as a bad place for a base when the enemy could move up and corner him … if they knew he resided there of course, while they didn’t it was actually a pretty safe place, nobody would think that one would waste their energy going up and down the building so they didn’t even bothered to check the upper floors, only the lower ones.

A stupid move on their side but their stupidity was his victory, the stupider they were the easier his victory was and god were they easy.

The fact that these victories were so easy was in every way possible so boring, there was no challenge whatsoever, yet he still felt good knowing that just by wanting he could move them through the city as puppets … rebel puppets but still boring puppets.

He wanted to laugh on the inside knowing that their stupidity had zero to no end, they never learned, never!

Even now, he was only making his way back, a simple task which he was giving his almost full attention, yet he picked up bits and pieces of info that he really should NOT have … from the point of view of the bastards on control of the city of course.

The fact that he now knew that there were intruders in the city and that one of them resembled the one that the remaining hidden survivors and the bastards in control of the city called the “One Shot Killer” … not the best name but still, it got the point across.

In other words … everything was coming his way. And in days like these that was quite the big fat blessing, he could barely contain his grin of pure happiness knowing that they would be together soon enough.

Good news after good news was welcome, especially with his luck, even going up the skyscraper was seemingly easier this day in specific.

His happy smile refused to leave as he went up, floor after floor until reaching the fortieth.

The floor didn’t have much, only a stairway to the rooftop and a locked door. When he had first come there he had no interest on the rooftop – he still doesn’t – and then there was that locked door. It wasn’t uncommon to be locked doors, especially the ones more on the heavy and sturdy side just like this one.

What made this so good for him was the fact that no door was locked for him.

It took but a few seconds, not even a minute to pick the lock open, enter the room close and lock the door again.

“Finally” he sighed, feeling the safety of the soundproof walls and door.

The place was large and not the cleanest but still cleaner than most of the other places in this forsaken town. There were no overgrown plants here, or dead bodies, a room of absolute safety.

Only a room with a few cabinets, a piano that had not been used for quite a while despite his skill, a few tables and just like the piano they were a little bit dusty, finally there where two doors with exception of the one leading to the staircase.

One of the rooms seemed to have been a bedroom before the virus. Something that was very weird.

Every single aspect about the place screamed music room. The piano, the soundproof walls to not annoy neighbors, the extra room for storage but then the bedroom … it was so odd … maybe some rich guy turned that room into a bedroom for his or her kid … likely possible, rich people would do extreme stuff, at the very least the ones that he had had the displeasure of meeting did.

Unlike them he had never had the chance of a family to take care of his every need as many others he had come to know got, unlike all of them he had to make his decisions, his and the decisions of others to get them the best possible that the situation would provide them.

Not like he cared though … he didn’t care about the people that once treated him bad, he couldn’t care, he couldn’t because he did not have the time to.

… However, he could care for something or someone now. There wasn’t anything to do for the time being, he could relax and doing so he could care for the … guest, he currently had.

“AHHHHHHH!” a loud shout of pain came from the room his guest was currently on.

Knowing the other’s condition and how he must’ve been feeling he quickly hurried to the bedroom.

Upon opening the door he was met with the familiar sight of the small room, the dusty windows, the bed and … the individual was out of sight.

Quiet whimpers and sobs came from under the bed, revealing the position of the other.

 

_He must be really afraid._

 

Once again he sighed, this time while sitting down on the floor, back leaning against the bed.

“Good morning” voice lulling into a soft playfulness “Are you feeling okay?” he continued, keeping his voice as less threatening as possible towards his guest.

There was some shuffling accompanied by a few whimpers from under the bed. Silence came after the whimpers.

“You don’t have to be afraid, or even be worried, I’m not going to hurt you”

“… Y-…” the other began speaking, voice strained and weak “Y-You wo-won’t?” a genuine smile formed on his face, he was making progress.

“I won’t hurt you”

“I-I-I … I don’t trust y-y-you …” a pain filled whimper came from under the bed.

He couldn’t be surprised that the other didn’t trust him … yet it was really frustrating that he had gone to find supplies to take care of his guest.

“It’s normal that you don’t trust me, buuuuut~” his plan was to make him feel a little bit at ease “Who do you think bandaged you up until there were no more bandages? Who do you think was it that brought you here, a safe room from all eyes? Who do you think gave you a bed and time to rest?”

“U-Um …” his hand sneaked under the bed but not far enough to touch the other “E-eeek”

“I won’t hurt you” he repeated again, voice even softer than before “Just … come out from there and back on the bed, I brought some more supplies to finish fixing you up” there was still no reply “And I promise you that I won’t hurt you like that man did”

“P-Pinky promise?”

“Pinky promise” he assured the child.

Slowly a small soft hand grabbed his own and he gently helped the child getting out from underneath the bed.

There were bandages around his forehead and covering his left eyes that had swollen quite a bit, his arms still had some purple bruises and … under that shirt things weren’t pretty.

Yet, he smiled politely towards the child “Hi there!” voice still soft, a tad bit louder and very friendly “I’m Kokichi” his hand extended towards the child for a hand shake, the other shrugging a bit at the action “What’s your name?”

The child’s eyes fell on the open door and then on Kokichi, hesitation was clear on each action from the child.

“I-I’m … M-My name’s H-Ha-…Hayato …” he grabbed Kokichi’s hand and shook it

“Ah! Hayato-chan, a cute name for a cute kid!” the other grew stiff, a clear pink blush on his cheeks.

“Nishishi, are you embarrassed Hayato-chan?”

Instead of an answer he only received a nod.

What an honest kid. Normally a good thing but with the situation at hand that wasn’t that so good.

Hayato backed away a bit when Kokichi got up, the action probably scaring him a bit but from the way he had been so far Kokichi was sure he wouldn’t attempt to run for it.

“Come here, sit with me” Hayato continued to hesitate but eventually forced the hesitation down and sat down at the end of the bed with a considerable distance from the older male.

Hayato kept sending glances towards Kokichi, trying to be aware of his every move. As he did not know Kokichi there was no knowing what he could do to him.

“I need you to take off your shirt”

… Aaaaand that did it to send Hayato’s panic levels through the roof.

“I-I-I knew it … a-a-all you want t-to d-d-do is t-the same l-l-“ he was silenced by a finger to his lips “You didn’t let me finish … I need to tend your bruises and you may or may not have broken ribs … I’ m going to remove my finger now so keep calm, got it?” the other nodded and the finger was removed.

Hayato did as asked, while hesitating every second. The moment the shirt was off was when he could take a good look at how his torso area was really like. His arms had many purple spots, they weren’t really hurting but if he touched them they did. His front didn’t seem to have bruises, his left side however was a different story.

It wasn’t a little spot with a purple bruise, no. it went from under his shoulder to his waist and it was a deep purple, almost black even and that one hurt a lot even without touching, just breathing was enough to bring him discomfort.

Kokichi pulled out of his bag some bandages and what seemed to be ointment. The older one began by putting the lotion on his wounds, avoiding the one near his ribs and then bandaged them up.

The one near his ribs however was different, Kokichi’s hands had to feel him up to see if there was anything broken. Needless to say that that was very painful for Hayato but thankfully for him Kokichi had not forced him to keep his voice down.

In the end, Hayato was only greatly hurt and didn’t have anything broken, leading Kokichi to tend the bruise as he did the others.

“There, all done!” he reached for his bag and pulled out a child sized shirt with a bunny in the front “I also found this while I was out, hope you like it”

It had been quite a while since he had interacted with someone that wasn’t trying to blow his brains out … it was even longer the last time he had spoken with a child.

This child however was different, this child reminded Kokichi of himself … in a way Hayato resembled him but … there was something else that was odd about the kid, everything he did struck an odd feeling of familiarity on Kokichi … far too familiar…

Kokichi had never met or seen anyone named Hayato, before or after the apocalypse but for some very odd reason that child struck something inside of him … could it be his imagination? Could it only be that the child resembled his younger self???

“T-T-…” a sight that Kokichi had not seen for a long time formed on the child’s face “T-Thank you” a pure genuine smile, so bright and kind, a hopeful sight that told him that even after everything there were people who weren’t scumbags.

“Nishishi, no need to thank me, buuuut~” he began on a singsong voice “One thing surprised me with your body, mostly at your belly … I think you know what I’m talking about” the child tilted his head slightly to the side. All actions filled with the upmost honesty that a professional liar like Kokichi could spot without even trying.

Hayato stuck out his belly and looked at the flat skin there, still confused with what the other was asking “I-I’m … I’m not sure what y-you mean …” … if there was one thing Kokichi wasn’t fond of was of asking a question and not getting a response, be it positive or negative, but he couldn’t find himself finding hatred towards the child.

It was so weird, why did he felt like he had to show kindness to this child, he had met other kids before and treated them with his usual façade self, this one, however, was harder to do so. He’d met others that seemed to have a past like his own and still managed to treat them with a lie and abandon them if they became dangerous … Hayato however was different, Kokichi for some reason could see his self on the kid, he could feel a huge nostalgic wave about the kid … but why, he had never met him, not once.

Just then he heard the door he had locked on his way in being opened and then quickly shut.

“Leader, you here?” a very familiar voice came from outside the bedroom.

A quiet gasp came from the child “I-I know that voice! Ren-kun!” Hayato quickly got up and made his way towards the door.

“Haya-chan?” Ren’s voice came from the hallway.

“I’m so happy to se-HYAAAAAA!” Kokichi hurried to the door and saw the only person he trusted … covered in an insanely high amount of blood “… Whatever this is I can assume that it went well … and I can assume that whatever happened to the kid has something to do with you, right, Ren-chan?”

The other locked eyes with Kokichi “L-Leader!” he shouted, feeling so happy for seeing him after a good while.

It was then that Ren finally realized the elephant on the room “Oh … right … I may or may have not been killing people and zombies since the ending of yesterday’s morning till today’s morning … also what happened to you Hayato”

The child didn’t respond, a sad look crossing his face.

“Riiiight … You’ve got something on left foot by the way, need a _hand_ with it? Nishishi”

“Hm?” right on his left foot was a hand from a person or zombie … most likely a zombie “I didn’t even notice that, whoops, also sorry for scaring you Haya-chan … I’ll go to the other room and … clean up … be right back”

With that he grabbed a nearby towel and entered a room that Hayato had not been on.

Kokichi sighed “Ren is still the same idiot with the bad timing as always … I’ll get him up to speed with what happened to you, okay?”

Hayato nodded in agreement “C-Can you ask him i-if … Can you ask him about Papa …”

_Papa??_

 

The third individual Kokichi had heard of was this kid’s father … how weird, last he knew he had asked Ren to bring Piano nerd and Amami, not some kid and his father. He had been very excited for seeing them again, especially Amami, they had not spoken to each other for a long time and he wanted them to hand out again.

“Sure, now it’s better If you rest up, if you do you’ll heal faster” this time Hayato didn’t show any hesitation, calmly he obeyed and climbed back on the bed he had been on. It seems like the child no longer looks at him with fear seeing that he has realized he is an acquaintance of Ren.

 

* * *

 

 

Ren didn’t take long to come out of the room, this time like a normal non-bloody human being.

“Took you long enough” Ren wasted no time on sitting down next to Kokichi and lock eyes with him.

After the years of living with the tiny Leader, Ren had grown accustomed and had learned when the other was and wasn’t mad and what he meant … sometimes … some very rare times … Fine, he almost never could tell what he was thinking but when he could he was right! … Sometimes …

“I do apologize for my late arrival, your majesty, but after exiting the perimeter coming across a vehicle with non-damaged tires, gas and a working engine proved to be quite on the difficult side”

Kokichi looked at him with big empty eyes, his expression unreadable “… Don’t you fucking dare to speak like that ever again, you know it’s creepy for you to sound smart like that when I’ve known you for seventeen years”

“Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to lighten the mood … so how has it been Leader”

“Not that bad, killed a few of those bastards and got the location of my briefcase, if anything waiting for you was the worst, and talking about you, where are Kayayday and Amami-chan? How do you and Hayato-chan know each other? What news do you have for me??”

Kokichi was … not very please but not mad. Ren gulped hard, knowing that he wasn’t going to be happy with what he was about to hear “Well … I’ve got some good news and lots of bad news …”

“… Go on …”

“… Well … we have two new members in our small group … and a good amount of supplies like medicine, canned food and stuff in between, let’s not forget a good running vehicle than can house more than four people”

“Nishishi, those really are good news” a fake smile graced the Leader’s face “What about the bad ones?”

Ren took a deep breath and emotionally prepared himself “Kaede is dead, Rantaro is dead, Hayato’s father is in the ‘Dead City’ area, I couldn’t find his father and I am SO fucking tired I could be considered DEAD …”

Ren freaking out like that was …uncommon, yet Kokichi’s worry was somewhere else for the moment.

“R-Ran-chan and Kayaday are dead … how?”

Ren looked to the left, probably trying to recall all that happened due to his extremely poor memory “Kaede was killed by a looter … or was it a group of looters .. pick one, can’t miss … uh … oh right, she didn’t turn. Rantaro was bit but Hayato’s father killed him before he turned, it was Rantaro’s request … that’s what I heard”

That wasn’t something Kokichi had accounted for. Both Rantaro and Kaede … both of them dead … How??

Ran-chan was a survivor, he wouldn’t die easily, so … how? He couldn’t have been bit, he wasn’t stupid, especially on the conditions that the world was now … and Aka-chan was like the most stubborn person he’d met, there was no way that there were any high chances of her going down … yet here they were, both people he wanted in his group dead, both people that Kokichi TRUSTED, sure Aka-chan could be annoying with her never ending positivity but Kokichi didn’t hate her, if anything she was one of the people he tolerated … in a good way! Ran-chan had always helped him and DICE whenever he could and had never once backstabbed them or even showed malice to them, of all people Kokichi had met, Ran-chan got his trust rather easily, even though he refused to show it.

“So …” the Leader blinked his eyes a few times, doing his best to keep his composure “… I understand you’re tired Ren-chan but do you have anything else or any more info for yours truly?” he asked on a sing song voice, he couldn’t let Ren of all people get affected by how he was feeling.

If he managed to keep down how he felt about everyone from DICE but him and Ren die he could keep this down.

“Uhhhh … other than the fact that we have Haya-chan’s father on the dead city and the fact I took down some of those bitches and some zombies down I’ve got shi-OH RIGHT! I got one of their walkie-talkies”

That was almost a great accomplishment.

“Will they find the body?”

“It was on the dead side of the city, the body was completely devoured and I hid it”

Scratch that, that WAS a great accomplishment … for Ren that is

“Wow Ren-chan, I’m impressed~ Nishishi” The Leader did his best to fake that he wasn’t affected in the slightest by the info provided. He just had to change the subject entirely “Now, I believe you’ve earned some well-deserved rest, why don’t you go rest up?”

“Right, right don’t nag me about it … I’m sorry …” it was odd how he had missed Ren’s mood changes when he was tired from not sleeping at all “… Oh yeah, I saw two dead bodies in that room” of course Ren would bring that up now “Got any good info from them??”

“Yup yup! I know where my briefcase is, now all I need is some batteries, the briefcase and this city will shine red at night”

Ren gave a thumbs up while yawning and making his way to a rundown couch “… I still feel I’m forgetting something important to tell you … Eh, I’ll tell you when I remember, nightie” with that he laid down and immediately fell asleep.

Kokichi amazement at Ren’s speed to sleep was quickly directed to the walkie-talkie. It was functioning, the batteries must still be good, batteries that the people in this city raided from all stores … well not like Kokichi hasn’t done the same, he also stole some stuff, some much more … explosive stuff.

All that he required now was for Ren to wake up and then they could get _it_ back, Kokichi needed it, the contents inside that briefcase were far too important for them to fall in the hands of these people and he didn’t mean it as a joke or anything like that, if they knew what they had inside that briefcase then they would either murder each other – and that would be very pleasant – or they would use _it_ as some sort of leverage.

… It doesn’t matter now, they still don’t know what is inside it and they don’t know when Kokichi is going to strike, it all ends for them when he removes those sweet sweet batterie-

*Pshhhh*

“Huh?” someone was using them.

“I … I’ve searched the western side of the city and I-I found one of o-o-our targets and … um … well, uhh, he’s not really … how s-should I-”

_Found one of the targets??_

That target could only be Hayato’s father, Kokichi was aware that only three people had managed to break into the city, two of those were Hayato and Ren and by exclusion, the remaining person could only be the kid’s father.

“Speak up woman … do I need to ‘motivate’ you?” a rough older voice came from the walkie-talkie

“N-No … it’s just … I’ll bring the target to the old movie theater …”

“Excellent job, seems like there was no need to raise my hand to your ‘motivation’ hahaha”

… Things weren’t looking good. A rescue mission by himself was stupid, even if Ren was awake and ready to go it wasn’t still ideal …

Only one option remained. Let Hayato’s father die.

“P-Papa …” the soft voice caused a slight flinch. Right there on the door to the room was Hayato, his face very pale, he probably overheard what was just said.

“Hayato-chan!” time to play it off “You should be restin-“ “N-No! P-Papa … I need to go to Papa!” the child looked around the room and ran to where his backpack was.

“Now there, how are you going to find the old movie theater?” he stopped dead on his tracks right in front of the door “Not to mention the dangers of the city, Humans are worse than zombies, they can run, think and use weapons” Kokichi’s was automatically sounding more and more mean “Besides can you even bring yourself to kill someone, just gi-“ “P-Please!” he turned to Kokichi, tears gathering on his eye “H-Help me … I’ve already lost Mister Amami and Miss Akamatsu … I don’t want to lose Papa as well …”

… He shouldn’t help him, this “rescue mission” was obviously a lost cause, they couldn’t save his father by themselves, not a chance “P-Please!”

…

…

…

…

Hayato bit his lower lip and looked really sad and then from a moment to the other his sad look faded, one of absolute determination crossed his face, a look that Kokichi knew what it meant.

Against all odds the kid was going to leave, despite better judgment saying not to.

“I … I’m going to look for Papa!” Hayato hurriedly made his way to the door.

Kokichi didn’t care, why would he care for a kid he had just met??

Was it because that kid still had his life in front of him? Nope.  
Was it because he reminded Kokichi of himself? Not at all.  
Was it because of that weird feeling that Kokichi couldn’t identify? Of course no!

The Leader followed reason most of the time, so, logically, there was no reason for him to care for the kid, they had just met and barely had positive interactions, in other words, there was no relation between them that would get him to do things for him … but … if that was the case, why was he debating it on his head …

“Wait …” Hayato had just opened the door, head turning back, casting his eyesight towards the Leader “I don’t want to have my conscience heavy because of a kid I’ve barely met sooooo~ … I think I’ll grant you my help”

Hayato’s eyes went wide, as wide as the smile that made its way to his face “T-Thank you!”

This was stupid, it was so incredibly stupid! The odds were all against them and yet he agreed to it so easily … what the fuck is wrong with him, he was Kokichi, lying was his thing, he never had any problem with faking emotions or act against what his emotions told him … so why? Why was it incredibly so hard to do that? Especially to a kid of all people!

There was no way he had lost his touch, he was still the same old Kokichi, he was sure of that, Ren didn’t suspect a thing of what happened … why … Why? Why is it so difficult, so strange, so … wrong …?!

Despite his better judgment, Kokichi grabbed a pistol, his axe and grabbed Hayato’s hand. The two left the room and quietly hurried to their destination.

 

* * *

 

 

 

. . .

. . .

. . .

 

So boooring.

Settling in an advantageous looking building for escaping and at the same time provided good cover and a good sight to the old movie theater seemed AND is a good idea.

Sadly for Kokichi, he didn’t deal well with boring things or boring situations. If he had to say, boredom was like rat poison running on his veins, truly horrible.

It also didn’t help that Hayato was pacing around the room like a cat chasing a laser from a laser pointer while at the same time showing his worry through his face and, in a weird way, in the way he was moving.

The child took a harsh stop and faced the Leader “A-Are they there yet?” it came out softly like a whisper but hurried with worry.

“For the twentieth time no” Hayato resumed his actions upon receiving answer.

Kokichi did the same, he resumed looking through the window or he knew he would snap and lose it.

Huh. Kids could irk him when they were like this … if anything, that was something he was sure to not see in this devastated world.

“W-What about now?”

“Nope”

And once again continued walking back and forth.

“A-And n-“ “No!” “Eek”

Great, now he felt bad. At least he was now still … sadly, he still looked very worried.

“C-Can …” he grew quiet at Kokichi’s gaze on him.

Kokichi on the other hand believed he was about to ask something different “Yes?”

“… It’s just … I … Is this city really empty of … um, good people?? I find it hard to believe … a-ah! I don’t mean to call you and Ren a liar …”

“Nishishi! That’s okay because that’s the truth! Well, about me that is!”

A new kind of worry crossed Hayato’s face “However I haven’t lied to you yet!” that worry seemed to fade a little with that.

“As to answer your question, there are no other good people here as far as I’m aware … the last group was found and most executed” There was no point in lying to him.

A sweet, kind, innocent child like Hayato … it’s obvious that he is going to die someday soon if he keeps up being like that, therefore the best thing was to soil his innocent mind with all the horrors that mankind was capable of, Kokichi needed to do that just enough to make him stronger … mentally that is.

“I think it was three months ago, the last group was hiding in one of those skyscrapers … I still remember them, they followed this dumb girl and her younger brother, she believed they could escape and reach a safe haven …” god … why was the memory paining him “… Me and Ren met them, the woman and her brother, they were both like you, very kind … she had this crazy dream of drowning herself on donuts once they reached their safe haven, the brother seemed a bit more level headed … and, like her, he had a stupid dream of swimming on a huge pool an entire day and break a stupid record …” those two … why was it so painful to remember them …

“W-What happened to them?” Hayato asked, clearly hoping for the best.

The Leader took a deep breath and took his mask back on. Grin on his face, evil eyes and a clear evil aura around him “Hehehe … Those bastards took the woman and killed her first in front of the group, they cut limb by limb … after that they did the same to all that was branded worthless … the ones that survived became their slaves” step after step towards Hayato, the child began to back away, step after step … until his back hit the wall.

“Do you see young one” he kneeled, evil grin still clear on his face “Humanity are monsters, even more so than zombies, so your cute, innocent and kind personality is not gonna cut it in this world” the look on Hayato’s face made a tiny weak voice inside of Kokichi louder, screaming for him to stop “You’re gonna be the first to die on the entire group, because you’re gonna have hope people can be ‘good’ and then … Nishishi, you’re a smart kid aren’t you, figure it out …”

Body shaking, eyes watery. He had done it, he scarred a child. Woo-hoo, isn’t that quite he accomplishment. Local asshole makes a kid cry … h-huh?

The child looked him in the eyes, his eyes still watery but kind, alongside a sweet honest smile “T-That may be true … I know I’ll die someday, I know I might not understand the motives of someone or a group, I know I might be in the way at times … but” a new look crossed his face, though still the same there was a … a fire in his eyes “As long as I have Papa I know everything will be fine … b-because … Papa makes my gloomy days go away … when I lived with Miss Akamatsu and Mister Amami I had trouble expressing myself, I always doubted myself and … I bottled up my feelings, but … that’s not the same with Papa.”

His smile grew bigger, not on an ominous way “I love Papa, I love him with all my heart, he’s the light that makes my days all worth living … a-and … if there is a day that Papa dies … I’ll gladly die with him and welcome a new dawn of a life where there is no pain, a life that all of us deserve.”

 

Mature.

 

That was the only word that Kokichi could see fit to describe the kid. Clearly he was forcing the brave façade but at the same time he wasn’t lying, he was likely trying to contain tears and probably not admitting the fact he doesn’t want to die and neither does he want his father to die.

“A-And …”

And?

“You’re hurt too …aren’t you?”

That was when Kokichi instinctively took a step backwards, an action that could be seen as losing balance and trying to take it back; an action that could mean nothing, he was just moving; however, this was not the case. The Leader had yet to lower his walls and somehow the kid read him like an open book.

“Talking about the people that have gone is … difficult for you … I see you try to hide it but you cared didn’t you? … It’s okay you know, I won’t judge you … a-and … if you need someone to hear you out you can count on m-me!” his fist proudly hit his chest “O-Or even better, you could speak with Papa!” Hayato’s face lit up at the mention of his father “Papa has this weird, kinda scary ability, to make a person feel better whenever he talks to them, I’ve noticed on Ren and of course on myself so p-please … even if it’s hard, rely on us, we’re all in the same group right?” once again that warm smile was on that face, such a sight was rare on the days that the dead have risen.

A chuckle escaped from Kokichi’s lips, another followed and another until he was laughing.

“Amazing! You’re amazing!” Hayato’s cheeks lit up at the praise “That’s what I would’ve said if you got any of that right” the corners of Hayato’s mouth went down just a tiny bit but the confident look on his face still remained. Kokichi was sure that he had not bought that yet he wasn’t pressing the subject further, be it out of politeness or just the fact that he was still thinking, Kokichi didn’t know, all he did know was that this child was very smart like him … he hated to admit it but maybe Hayato could have a sharper mind.

Just then obnoxiously loud laughter came from the street, that was the cue that the two needed to run to the boarded windows and watch the scene unfold.

 

 

“You’re finally here but I do not see the target … I see that you’ve lied” a guy began speaking, as he did all others had grown silent.

“I-I … didn’t lie …” her meek almost unbearable voice came out

“Oh really, then by all means, where is the target?”

She seemed hesitant for a second but eventually her hand went for a the bag she was carrying and pulled out a ripped dark blue double-breasted jacket with still dripping blood from the most ripped parts.

“H-He … He was attacked by zombies and broke free but succumbed to the infection … I left his cadaver with the others …”

“Hmph, what a pity, okay all of you, back to your positions”

“Sir, yes Sir!” they all responded in unison.

 

 

. . .

There was no sound, only silence, the eerie horrible silence that he was all too familiar with. The silence of the horror that settles in someone when the worst possible thing ends up becoming a reality.

“Hayato-chan?” his gaze turned to the child.

He was not moving.

No tears, no movement, no facial expression, no sound … the child kept his empty gaze focused on the discarded jacked that still remained on the street.

“… P-… Papa? …” Kokichi heard it well. With that one word he heard how broken the child was on the inside just from watching what had happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I know that I will take quite a while to get the next chapter out I will give you this teaser  
> \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
>  ~~Chapter 10: City of the dead 2/2~~
> 
>  
> 
> ...  
> ...  
> ...  
> ...
> 
> Screams of pain, horror, death ... they all had fadded to nothing. With such a nightmare finally over relief had and still was washing all over him.
> 
> His mind graced by the quiet sound of the song of the wind that echoed on these empty school halls.
> 
> Eyes focused to a figure, a human figure sitting down brick stairs looking down at something.
> 
> He followed the other's eyes and found a grave.
> 
> -Here Lies Aoi Asahina-  
> -May you be free from this horrid world-
> 
> At the bottom was another inscription that seemed to have been made much more recently.
> 
> -I promise to make them all pay for what they did to you, sis-
> 
> \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> See you all next update!


End file.
